Intensive Survey of the Cocoa Producing Areas of the Gold Coast and Trends in Potential Production.

Abstract

The importance of cocoa in the economy of the Gold Coast, and the threatened consequences of the killing swollen shoot disease, are too well known to require further description here. These matters were touched upon in an earlier report (1), when a preliminary investigation was carried out to see what additional use could be made of the vast masses of data collected by the Cocoa Division of the Gold Coast Department of Agriculture during their routine work of locating and treating outbreaks of Swollen Shoot. This investigation resulted in a new post being created for an Agricultural Statistician to work under the direction of the Government Statistician in consultation with the Director of Agriculture; the post was first filled in June, 1954. First priority was given to the study of future trends of cocoa production. Two aspects of cocoa production are treated in this report. The first is a theoretical study of how production is affected by different patterns of planting at different dates, taking into account the drastic decline in planting which occurred during World War II. The second is an analysis of the Cocoa Survey data.