Coconut Sector Development Project. Report on applied research programme in agronomy and crop protection to the operator of the project (GREL) from 15/04/1999 to 09/05/1999

The Ghanaian government, with assistance from the Agence Française de Développement (AFD), has launched a Coconut Sector Development Project to revive coconut cultivation in smallholdings and has selected GREL (Ghana Rubber Estates Limited) as project operator. The action plan for this project includes an adaptive research aspect whose implementation has been entrusted to OPRI (Oil Palm Research Institute) and CIRAD. For its part, OPRI is responsible for setting up the various trials scheduled under the Project and CIRAD will be providing specialists in the different fields involved. In particular, the "adaptive research" operations are required to lead on to technical recommendations for planting material production techniques, planting techniques, fertilization and leaf analyses, intercropping, monitoring of the Cape Saint Paul Wilt Disease etiology, Oryctes control and small-scale yield processing. An initial joint mission was carried out by an agronomist and an entomologist in April/May 1999. The adaptive research protocols for agronomy and crop protection, which were drafted during the mission for implementation of the replanting and production intensification programmes, can be found in this report. With regard to crop protection, experiments have been set up to provide solutions for better control of Oryctes, which, from the moment of planting, can cause significant mortality among young plants. It is therefore proposed that improvements be made to the technique of Oryctes trapping with pheromone, in order to reduce the level of observed populations. With regard to agronomy, a total of 13 trials on mineral nutrition and agronomic techniques are being set up to monitor technical procedures and to adjust the recommended levels of fertilization, if necessary. Some of these tests in replantings carried out on sandy soils close to the sea, will also study the possibility of restoring fertility to those soils, by planting bushy leguminous trees such as Acacia mangium or Acacia auriculiformis. The European Union is currently compiling a financial package with the MOFA, in connection with its WERADEP (Western Region Agricultural Development Programme) project, for setting up an applied research programme on coconut, which will be additional to that planned under the Project. At the request of the MOFA, proposals for the scientific content of this programme have been drawn up jointly by OPRI-Coconut Programme and CIRAD in consultation with NRI, and they are presented in this report. (Résumé d'auteur)