Tree crop based agroforestry in Nigeria: a checklist of crops intercropped with cocoa.
Oladokun M. A. O.
Author Affiliation: Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria, PMB 5244, Ibadan, Nigeria.
Agroforestry Systems 11 : 227-241
Abstract : A survey of cocoa farmers in Bendel, Ogun, Ondo and Oyo States of Nigeria, carried out in 1985, showed that almost all the farmers intercropped other crops with cocoa. The intercrops included food crops such as plantain (92.3%), cocoyam (85.7%), cassava (51.3%), yam (41.3%), maize (38.9%), melon (31.4%), cowpea (28.6%) and pineapple (26.0%) and tree crops such as oil palm (71.5%), kola (67.3%), coffee (41.0%), coconut (7.9%) and citrus (7.2%). Other crops were ewe-iran (Sarcophrynium brachystachys) and ewe-gbodogi (Megaphrynium macrostachyum) (45.2%), african walnut (Tetracarpidium conophorum) (42.2%), alligator pepper (Aframomum melegueta) (31.6%), and iyere (Piper guineense) (20.2%). Guava, mango, pawpaw and vegetables such as celosia, okra and solanum occurred in cocoa plots at rather low frequencies. As many as six or more other crops could be intercropped with cocoa at the same time.