The Ajumako-Enyan-Essiam district in southern Ghana recently regained cocoa district status and has excellent potential for future production due to the young age of the trees. However, young trees are more susceptible to drought, so it is crucial to consider water resilience when assessing their potential.
This district has received more rainfall than average overall over the last quarter. This might mistakenly suggest that the amount of soil water available to trees is higher than average.
However, because the surplus precipitation comes from concentrated rainfall over short periods of time, some of it has been lost through runoff and, at present, the hydric resilience of the cacao trees is actually some 20% lower than average.
Nevertheless, this still accounts for 3 weeks without hydric stress even in the case of zero precipitation from now on. In view of this, we can consider the harvest in this district to be fairly safe, as rainfall should resume in September in coastal sites.
This district has received more rainfall than average overall over the last quarter.