The Capsid, Black Pod and Swollen Shoot Cacao Diseases in Ghana, 1910-1966 " (1991)
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Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Retrospective Theses and Dissertations Dissertations 1991 The ac psid, black pod and swollen shoot cacao diseases in Ghana, 1910-1966 Francis K. Danquah Iowa State University Follow this and additional works at: https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd Part of the African History Commons, Agricultural Economics Commons, Economic History Commons, and the Plant Pathology Commons Recommended Citation Danquah, Francis K., "The capsid, black pod and swollen shoot cacao diseases in Ghana, 1910-1966 " (1991). Retrospective Theses and Dissertations. 10026. https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd/10026 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Dissertations at Iowa State University Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Retrospective Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Iowa State University Digital Repository. 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Ann Arbor, MI 48106 The capsid, black pod and swollen shoot cacao diseases in Ghana: 1910-1966 by Francis K. Danquah A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department; History Major; Agricultural History Approved: Signature was redacted for privacy. In Charge of Major Work Signature was redacted for privacy. For the Major Department Signature was redacted for privacy. For th^ raduate College Iowa State University Ames, Iowa 1991 Copyright Francis K. Danquah, 1991. All rights reserved. ii INTRODUCTION 1 Endnotes 10 LITERATURE REVIEW 14 Endnotes 17 METHODOLOGY 19 I THE PROBLEM OF CACAO PLANT DISEASES FROM AN INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE 22 Endnotes 45 II "AN INCIDENTAL ADJUNCT." THE BEGINNINGS OF THE CAPSID, BLACK POD AND SWOLLEN SHOOT CACAO DISEASE CONTROL IN GHANA, 1910-1925 52 Endnotes 79 III PRELIMINARY RESEARCH INTO THE BIONOMICS AND CONTROL OF THE CAPSID, BLACK POD AND SWOLLEN SHOOT CACAO DISEASES, 1926-1943 86 Endnotes 119 IV WARTIME CACAO DISEASE EPIDEMIC AND THE EMERGENCE OF THE WEST AFRICAN CACAO RESEARCH INSTITUTE, 1939-1945 .... 125 Endnotes 146 V IMMEDIATE POST-WAR PROGRAMS TO ERADICATE THE SWOLLEN SHOOT EPIDEMIC, 1945-1947 151 Endnotes 164 VI THE POLITICIZATION OF THE SWOLLEN SHOOT CONTROL PROGRAM . 167 Endnotes 192 VII THE NATIONALIST GOVERNMENT AND THE POLITICS OF THE CACAO SWOLLEN SHOOT CONTROL 201 Endnotes 214 VIII THE ORGANIZATION AND TREATMENT OF THE CAPSID, BLACK POD, AND SWOLLEN SHOOT DISEASES IN GHANAIAN CACAO FARMS, 1952-1965 230 Endnotes 250 IX THE RESULTS OF THE CACAO DISEASE CONTROL PROGRAMS .... 255 Endnotes 277 CONCLUSIONS 283 BIBLIOGRAPHY 289 iii EPILOGUE: GHANA'S CACAO DISEASE PROBLEM: 1967-1991 327 Endnotes 333 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 334 1 INTRODUCTION Cacao is the agricultural raw material for the manufacture of chocolate bars and cocoa drinks, and an assortment of cosmetic products and oil derivatives in industrialized countries. Most tropical agrarian societies produce cacao. For its nutritious qualities, the crop has attracted such vivid descriptive terms as the "magic bean," "the golden pod" and "food of the gods.Cacao, however, suffers from a wide variety of plant diseases estimated at 2.6 billion dollars in financial losses to farmers annually.% Ghana, which dominated world cacao output from 1911 to 1978, experienced the crippling Swollen Shoot plant epidemic in the 1930s. Today, cacao cultivation is declining in Ghana partly because farmers lack the means to control certain pests and pathogens.^ The dangers of cacao plant pestilence and disorders have long historical precedents. Diseases destroyed cacao trees in the western hemisphere, the gene-center of the plant, and where the earliest plantations flourished. For this reason, cacao production shifted from the neotropics to West Africa. In the modern world, a crisis of plant diseases confront all cacao growing countries. Some of these countries like Ghana and Nigeria, have faced formidable problems of pathogenic attacks in their cacao plantations for decades. 2 The menace of plant diseases holds implications for Ghana's economy which has since colonial times relied heavily upon cacao export revenues. Until 1978, the largest cacao plantation system in the world was. concentrated in Ghana's tropical rain forest of some 30,000 square miles.^ These plantations are costly long term investments which has since the 1890s earned hard currency from world markets to underwrite economic improvements in Ghana. Since independence in 1957, cacao export revenues have paid for capital goods and raw materials for domestic manufacturing plants. This means that the crop provides income to rural populations, and created jobs for urban industries.^ Moreover, manufacturing enterprises in many industrialized countries depend upon regular supplies of cacao beans to sustain production. Hence, if diseases and pests are able to impair cacao plantations, supplies to overseas industrial plants would diminish significantly. Ghanaian cacao farmers would lose their source of livelihood. The government of Ghana, because of its heavy dependence on cacao export revenues, would also forfeit its economic viability. In industrialized countries, manufacturers of cacao products would languish and face ultimate collapse. Accordingly, as this project aims to demonstrate, the Agricultural Department in Ghana has sought to contain cacao plant diseases in the country's forest belt since the early twentieth century. 3 These endeavors improved with advances in the state of technical knowledge on cacao plant pathogens over time. This project also discusses the significance of cacao diseases in Ghanaian society, economy and politics from 1910 to 1966. This shows that apart from their biological and economic dangers, monocultures could potentially generate political difficulties as occurred in Ghana after World War II. The political repercussions produced two inter-related turning points in Ghanaian history. First, the event contributed significantly to Ghana's decolonization process. Above all else, it focused the energies of the Ghana government to design and concentrate research and extension services after 1948 to cope with cacao pathogens in Ghana. Despite their economic significance, plant diseases have remained an unexplored field in African historiography. The neglect of Agricultural Science in African historical research has probably derived from the assumption that the Natural and Physical Sciences bear little interaction with the Social Sciences and the Humanities. Scholarship in the Social Sciences and Humanities to date, has overlooked possible intersections with the Natural and Physical Sciences when explicating social phenomena in Africa. This work on cacao plant pests and pathogens offers a departure. It blends material from the Humanities and Natural Sciences to deal with an important aspect of Ghana's major agricultural export 4 commodity. Analytical Framework An adaptation of the concept of "Induced Institutional Innovation," in agricultural economics and development provides an analytical tool for this work. This analysis considers the colonial and post-independent politicians, bureaucrats and technocrats as "political entrepreneurs" who responded to compelling biological and economic forces through public research and extension services. The political entrepreneurs encompassed the executive and legislative branches of government which formulated policies, and used bureaucratic institutions like the Department of Agriculture and Agricultural Research Stations to contain cacao diseases in Ghana. The technocrats comprised of virologists, mycologists, entomologists and plant pathologists in the service of the Agricultural Department in Ghana.* The national policy makers innovated Ghana's cacao economy as an investment designed to maintain Ghana's