Abstract

In Côte d’Ivoire, cocoa trees were submitted to several production constraints, including cocoa swollen shoot disease (CSSD). The aim of this work is to select cocoa trees with good agronomic traits and CSSD tolerance. Ten families of cocoa trees have been evaluated with 7 descriptives parameters such as the number and weight of total fresh beans and also the weight of dry beans. These families were also evaluated against CSSD. Results showed that families F8, F6 and F5 have the best for average number of normal fresh beans per pod, with 43.97, 42.64, and 42.28 beans, respectively. F6 (42.64 beans) and F5 (42.28 beans) also had the best average fresh bean weights, with 138.39 and 122.89 g, respectively. F9, F6 and F10 have been characterized by the highest value of merchantable beans, with respectively 1.30, 1.20 and 1.18 g per dry bean. F6, F4 and F8 showed the best tolerance to CSSD in the greenhouse, with 0% infection rate and good vegetative growth. The agronomical performances of these hybrids must be confirmed in multilocal trials in infected areas before their introduction into seed gardens. This result constituted an indicator for selecting cocoa trees for CSSD-infected areas.

Key words: Assessment, Theobroma cacao, cocoa swollen shoot disease (CSSD)-tolerance, Côte d’Ivoire.