Feeding your cocoa tree with the correct fertilizer is not only vital to help protect against pest and diseases, it is essential to help the tree produce at maximum or optimum capacity. The major ingredient in most cocoa growing situation is high fertilizer input. However, with my field experience when it comes to managing tree crops (cocoa and oil palm), I can easily conclude that the agronomy of cocoa is much more complex than oil palm.
The reason for this is because there is a strong interaction between nutrition and other agronomic factors in cocoa. These factors include shade, planting density, pest, and disease. Therefore, for an investor who which to invest in a cocoa plantation, all these factors must be fully considered. Finally, before you commence fertilization on your cocoa plantation, ensure the plantation is well cleared and clean because it is useless to apply fertilizer when the plantation is not well cared for. If fertilizer is added when the farm is weedy, competition for available and limited resources set in and the grower loses his money.
