U.S. grants $1 million to combat cocoa pest

U.S. grants $1 million to combat cocoa pest

JAKARTA (JP): The United States has agreed to give a $1
million (Rp 9.5 billion) grant to help Indonesian cocoa farmers
fight against a pest which is threatening production of one of
Indonesia's main export crops.

Alfons Eurling, deputy director of the U.S. Agricultural
Cooperative Development International/Volunteer in Overseas
Cooperative Assistant (ACDI/VOCA), said on Wednesday the two-year
project involved training some 20,000 smallholder farmers in
South Sulawesi, Southeast Sulawesi and Central Sulawesi.

The three provinces account for the largest production of
Indonesia's cocoa.

The project involved training small farmers in the three
provinces the technique of breaking the life cycle of the pest
known as pod borer and therefore minimizing infestation of the
pest, Eurling told The Jakarta Post.

The program, to be conducted in cooperation with the regional
offices of the Ministry of Agriculture, included pruning cocoa
leaves, altering traditional harvesting techniques, and
sanitation, he said.

The project includes setting up a 400 hectares plantation with
40,000 cocoa trees; half would follow the prescribed program and
the other half would use the existing method.

"We expect this method could reduce the infestation rate by up
to 40 percent," he said.

The pod borer has been attacking cocoa plantations in Sulawesi
since 1991.

Zulhefi Sikumbang, a senior executive at the Cocoa Producers
Association (Askindo), said early this month that the pest had
attacked at least 70,000 hectares of plantations in Central and
South Sulawesi.

If the infestation continues, Indonesia's cocoa bean
production could fall by as much as 50 percent in five years
time, he said.

Small farmers account for about 380,000 tons of Indonesia's
cocoa production of 461,000 tons in 1999. (05)