Pest Damage Cacao Crop In West Sulawesi

Mamuju, W Sulawesi, April 24 (Antara)- Pest attacks cacao plants causing the fruits of the plant to decay in Mamuju District, West Sulawesi. The worst attack is in the village of Kalonding in the sub-district of Sampaga, a local farmer Sahril said here on Wednesday. "In rainy season as we have at present the pest could easily spread to other areas causing serious threat to the cacao farmers," Sahril said. He said cacao plants in hundreds of hectares of plantations in the sub-district of Kalonding had been destroyed by the pest resulting in sharp drop in productivity. Kalonding is known to be a major producer of good quality cacao in West Sulawesi, which is one of the country`s largest cacao producing regions, he said. During the rainy seasons in the past several months production averaged only 200 kilogram per hectare, he said. He said he hoped the government would step in to eradicate the pest to spare the farmers of their livelihood in the area. West Sulawesi Governor Anwar Adnan Saleh said pest attack has always been a serious threat to cacao farmers in the province. The government has tried to help by distributing pesticide, fungicide and other anti plant disease medicines, but the attempts are not enough to entirely stop pest attack, Anwar said. "The West Sulawesi administration has developed cacao cloning which is more resistant to plant diseases," he said. Cacao is one of Indonesia`s major export commodity and the country is the third largest producers of cacao beans in the world.