Blackpod disease and its threat to cocoa yields in southwestern Nigeria: A case study of the cocoa research institute of Nigeria, ibadan

Among the key agricultural commodities in Nigeria and the Southwest, cocoa is very important, contributing to the local economy and household livelihoods. In several ways, however, its productivity is increasingly threatened by black pod disease due to various Phytophthora species, especially P. palmivora and P. megakarya. The incidence of black pod disease was related to temperature, rainfall, and relative humidity over a period of 30 years from 1986 to 2015 at the Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria, Ibadan. Climate trends were analyzed based on statistical methods, box plots and correlations that show the description of trends in relation to disease prevalence. These results indicated that high rainfall, high humidity, and an increase in black pod diseases are related, hence the urgent need for climate-adaptive agricultural practices. The paper therefore forms a foundation for developing sustainable mitigation strategies that target climate-related disease risk factors with a view to ensuring resilience in cocoa production in Nigeria.