Indian product brought in to boost cocoa yield

By DOROTHY MARK
Sumkar MP Chris Nangoi has introduced a new technology to increase cocoa production in his electorate.
Nangoi brought an Indian cocoa specialist, Dr Soorriya Murthy, with his bio-organic product to Karkar Island yesterday and demonstrated to farmers how to use the products.
Murthy said Karkar Island had fertile volcanic soil and healthy trees.
Nangoi said a farmer on the island produced 300kg-400kg of dried cocoa beans annually.
Murthy said with the bio-organic product he introduced, a farmer could produce 1000kg of dried cocoa beans a year.
He poured 4kg of the bio-organic powder into four 50-litre bowls of water and stirred.
Murthy left it to ferment overnight before applying them to some cocoa trees in a one-hectare farm.
He said farmers would see improvements in their cocoa trees in the next two months after applying the bio-organic mixture.
Murthy said the new technology would increase the health of the cocoa trees.
He advised farmers to prune their trees, clear weeds, remove diseased fruit and plant cocoa trees 3.5 metres apart so that they don’t touch each other.
“Trees touching each other will cause them to stress,” Murthy said.
Nagoi said Sumkar people depended heavily on cocoa and copra and he wanted to help local farmers produce more.
Murthy said the bio-organic product would increase the quality and quantity of their cocoa and could be used on coconuts too.
Locals who gathered to see the fermentation demonstration also wanted to use the bio-organic mixture on their vanilla and betel nut trees.