But some producers are cautious about the effectiveness of the product. Many producers treat pruned material with Tricovab, a competitor fungus formulated by CEPLAC and released in 2013. Tuta tells me that “the pruning is the main thing you have to do… All the dead leaves, all the new sprouting of the brooms, you clip them out.”Ĭacao pods infected by witches’ broom. The Financial Times reports that the collapse of the industry cost an estimated 200,000 jobs.īecause there is no cure or effective treatment for witches’ broom, producers must focus on prevention. Entire forests were destroyed to prevent the spread of the fungus, and farmers took out loans to cover the losses of their crops. When witches’ broom broke out in Bahía in the early 1990s, Brazilian cacao agency CEPLAC advised producers to raze their crops. Credit: Tuta Aquino Tackling Witches’ Broom The broom shaped stalks of an infected tree. In the humid Amazonian climates, conditions are perfect for them to flourish and spread quickly. Infected pods show rotten spots and they’re likely useless for consumption or to grow new trees.įinally, when temperature and humidity levels are at the right point, dramatic pink basidiocarps (mushroom fruiting bodies) form and release new spores. The mycelia start to feed on the dead plant cells and the brooms change from green to brown, commonly known as dry brooms. ![]() The necrotrophic phase takes place two to three months after infection. The fungus diverts the plant’s energy away from effective growth and eventually causes cell death. The infected shoots morph into swollen spindly stalks, or the “brooms” that the fungus is named for. The fungus extends tendril-like mycelia in between the cells of the plant and it feeds on the living tissue. In the biotrophic stage, the tiny fungus spores enter healthy cacao trees through surface wounds or small gaps. Witches’ broom is a hemibiotrophic fungus, meaning that it functions in two stages. Credit: Tuta Aquino How Witches’ Broom Attacks You may also like Is Producing Fine Cacao Worth It?Ĭacao pods spoiled by witches’ broom. He says, “I’m convinced it was brought to the region and deliberately spread in our plantations.” Tuta Aquino is a cacao farmer at Vale Potumuju in Bahía. There is some evidence that the outbreak of witches’ broom in Bahía was intentional. It’s reported that cacao output fell from 390,000 metric tons in 1988 to 123,000 metric tons in 2000. But the outbreak in the Bahía region spread more rapidly than ever seen before. The fungus responsible was Moniliopthora perniciosa, more commonly known as witches’ broom (or, sometimes, witch’s broom).Ĭacao producers were familiar with the fungus, which is indigenous to the Amazon basin. Then a fungus ran rampant through the nation’s cacao plantations and the industry was decimated. But as recently as the early 1990s, Brazil was also a major producer. ![]() Today, most of the world’s cacao is produced in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana. ![]() Credit: Tuta Aquino A Brief History of Witches’ Broom ![]() Lee este artículo en español ¿Qué es la Escoba de Bruja y Cómo Afecta al Cacao?Īrataca, Bahía, Brazil, one of the areas hit hard by witches’ broom in the 1990s. Let’s take a look at what witches’ broom is and how cacao farmers can handle it. In the 1980s, the disease devastated Brazil’s cacao production and it’s never far from producers’ minds. One of the most damaging infections is witches’ broom, an aggressive fungus that can kill the tree and wipe out whole farms. Like any other plant, cacao is vulnerable to pests and diseases.
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