Report on the mission to Ghana, GREL, 15 to 21 November 1999

The purpose of this mission was to analyse the procedures currently applied for controlling rubber tree diseases on smallholdings, then propose recommendations and/or set up trials under the adaptive research component of the second phase of the smallholdeer project. In substance, this consisted in: - ascertaining the phytosanitaiy problems encountered on smallholdings and the control procedures currently implemented, - studying the appropriateness of those procedures and possibly make modifications, - informing smallholder project supervisors of the advances made in research on the phytosanitaiy protection of rubber trees, and introducing new techniques if necessary, - proposing trials providing answers to specific questions raised by smallholder rubber cultivation in Ghana. GREL supervisory staff mentioned the following phytosanitary problems, in order of importance to them: - revision of Fomes control procedures, possibly setting up trials: effective fungicides, application frequency, duration and period of fungicide applications, need for partial or total isolation of infected trees, current state of research in terms of genetic and biological control, - termite control at the time of planting, - control of leaf diseases in the nursery, - recommendations on rubber-cassava intercropping, - recommendations regarding Loranthaceae .