A sustainable and ecological approach to integrated cocoa pest management in Indonesia

Cocoa is one of Indonesia’s leading plantation crops, playing a crucial role in providing employment, generating foreign exchange, and income for farmers. However, many cocoa plantations are old and damaged due to inadequate maintenance and pest attacks. Farmers frequently apply crop management practices without considering the environmental impact, such as using inorganic fertilizers, chemical pesticides and herbicides, and intensive land exploitation. There is a need to increase sustainable cocoa production while preserving environmental quality and resources. The strength and weaknesses of all available resources supporting cocoa production including integrated pest management were analysed by collecting primary and secondary data in cocoa production centre. Sustainable and ecological approach which utilizes natural resources efficiently without harming the environment with technological support were used. Research and extension institutions in Indonesia which developed technologies to address pest problems are also considered in synthesizing recommendation of sustainable cocoa IPM.


Pests and diseases
The state of pest and disease attacks on cocoa plantations in the survey area varies greatly depending on the area of cocoa.It can be seen in Table 1 that the types of pests and diseases on farmers' crops are not much different from the general situation in Indonesia obtained from secondary data.However, the intensity of the attack depends on the maintenance method, environmental conditions and the technology applied.However, in general the pests and diseases that cause the most damage are fruit borers, fruit suckers and fruit rot.[7] Based on Table 1, it is shown the areas of pests and diseases attack in 33 provinces of Indonesia for three consecutive years (2015, 2017, and 2019).The table shows the areas of four types of pests and diseases attack, which are disease of fruit rot, disease of VSD, cocoa pod borer C. cramerella, and cocoa mirid bug H. antonii.
According to the data, the disease of fruit rot and cocoa prod borer C. cramerella are the two most significant types of pests and diseases that affected the area of cacao plantations in Indonesia over the three-year period.In 2015, C. cramerella had the highest area of attack with 776,555 hectares, followed by disease of fruit rot with 368,299 hectares.In 2017, disease of fruit rot had overtaken C. cramerella as the pest with the highest area of attack, with 564,478 hectares compared to 689,097 ha for C. cramerella.However, in 2019, disease of fruit rot and C. cramerella had almost the same area of attack with 475,384 ha and 684,190 ha, respectively.
On the other hand, disease of VSD and H. antonii showed a decreasing trend in their areas of attack.Disease of VSD had the highest area of attack in 2015 with 364,611 hectares, but the area decreased to 295,060 hectares in 2017 and then slightly increased to 358,029 hectares in 2019.Similarly, H. antonii had the highest area of attack in 2019 with 284,240 hectares, but the area decreased from 265,062 hectares in 2015 to 232,220 hectares in 2017.
Overall, the data from Table 1 highlights the significant challenge of pests and diseases faced by the cacao plantations in Indonesia.The fluctuations in the areas of attack for different types of pests and diseases over the three-year period emphasize the need for continuous monitoring and management efforts to ensure the sustainability of cacao production in Indonesia.Based on the discussion with cacao scientist from PT Mars, the area of attacks increased until 2021.
Pest problems on cocoa plants also occur in other producing countries, such as Ghana, Cameroon, and Brazil.In Ghana, the main pests on cocoa are cocoa mirids Helopeltis spp.and C. cramerella.Cocoa mirid infestations can cause defects in cocoa pods and reduce the quality of cocoa beans, while cocoa fruit borers damage cocoa beans and can reduce harvest yields [8].In Cameroon, the main pests on cocoa are cocoa fruit borers' C. cramerella and mealybugs Planococcus citri [9].In Brazil, the main pests on cocoa are Conotrachelus humeropictus and cocoa mirids Helopeltis spp.Cocoa borers damage cocoa beans and can reduce the quality of cocoa, while cocoa mirids can cause defects in cocoa pods and reduce the quality of cocoa beans [10].
Compared with types of pest's infestation in Indonesia, the damage caused in those countries are not as severe as in Indonesia, because of different management.The symptoms of each pest and disease can be shown in Figure 1.The C. cramerella known as the cocoa fruit borer, attacks cocoa pods, starting from the young (about 8 cm in length) to the ripe pods.The dangerous stage is the larval stage eating the flesh of the fruit and the food channel leading to the seeds.Symptom that appears from the outside is the faded skin colour and the appearance of green, yellow, or red-orange stripes and the fruit does not sound when shaken.If the young fruits are attacked, the damage is severe because the seeds stick together and are firmly attached to the fruit skin, thereby reducing the quality and quantity of cocoa beans.Symptoms will be very visible when the fruit is split, black flesh with wrinkled seeds attached to one another and the weight is very light.Decline in seed quality caused by decreasing seed size, increasing skin content, sticking seeds, and poor appearance.The average yield loss by C. cramerella attacks in cocoa production centres can reach more than 90% [11] causing yield losses of 64.9 -82.2% [12].

Farm management
Until now, most of the cocoa cultivation has been cultivated by small farmers (almost 99%, Directorate General data [3]).This causes plants to be poorly maintained in the field, starting from garden sanitation, weeding, pruning, irrigation in the dry season and pest control.In 2019, the damaged plants had reached 556,766 ha [2] from 1 560,944 ha.In addition, most of the plants are old, because the development of cocoa plants in Indonesia started when seeds was donated from the Regional Government and the Provincial Plantation Office in 1990-2000, so that the proportion of old plants is currently larger (50-70%).Poor management in the development of cocoa plantations is shown by the presentation of planters who do not implement balanced fertilization and only make minimal pest control (Table 3).
Appropriate pruning was only carried out in Gunung Kidul, as in Madiun Regency only 90% of farmers prune their cocoa plants (without pruning protective plants).Pest and disease control in Pacitan and Gunung Kidul was only carried out by 30% of farmers.Lack of maintenance invites pests and diseases to attack.If sanitation is not carried out, litter or fruit peels that are not stockpiled become a source of pest infection, because the fruit peels still contain C. cramerella eggs, and the litter still contains Phytophthora spores.It is estimated that the budget for controlling pests and diseases can reach 40% (from intervieu).Small farmers are reluctant to incur costs for control because it will reduce added value, therefore the easiest way of control is chosen, by using insecticides which are sold in small packages which are sometimes provided by the Local Government.Even though it is recommended to use a combination of control components and monitor each harvest to save the next nipples.
Harvesting and processing are the last farming processes.Farmers are advised to ferment the fruit that has been harvested and collected to improve the taste of the processed product.However, based on several surveys, most farmers are reluctant to ferment because the difference between fermented and unfermented cocoa beans prices are not much different.Sometimes the cocoa beans are sold to the group leaders in dry form and are processed by the farmer groups, so the added value is not much.
The land areas owned by farmers in Java is very narrow (0.3-0.5) ha, while farmers still must plant several types of crops to earn their living.To obtain added value from their crops, they are forced to choose plants that are easy to maintain but providing sustainable yields.Cocoa is rarely selected because of its difficult maintenance as well as low productivity and price.

Adoption of technology.
In this sub-chapter, technology availability is presented based on data obtained from the Research Institute.However, before that, the extent to which cocoa farmers are able to apply it is presented in Table 4.It can be seen that farmers who wee still willing to apply technology with a proportion above 50% are Gunung Kidul and Pacitan farmers, because the cocoa location in Gunung Kidul is very close to the Research Center.Meanwhile, many cocoa locations in Pacitan collaborate with SMEs who were willing to buy fermented cocoa at a higher price.[15].Resistant hybrid cacaos are offspring that are resistant to both Sca 6 and Sca 12. Superior clones that are also resistant to Helopeltis spp.are ICCRI 01, ICCRI 02, ICCRI 03 and ICCRI 04.According to Sulistyowati and Iswanto [16], Sca 6, Sca 12 and ICS 6 are also highly resistant to H. antonii.Based on the survey in several areas of cocoa production, only several superior varieties adopted by farmers MCC 01, MCC 02, ICCRI 1, ICCRI 2, Sulawesi 1 and Sulawesi 2.

Land preparation and conservation
Climate change often occurs unexpectedly which has an unfavourable impact on the microclimate of plants.Environmental stress is a common problem faced by cocoa plants from young plants to adults.For this reason, land preparation is needed to prepare the growth environment and minimize the risk of plant growth.In young plants, environmental stress can inhibit growth for a certain time, in certain cases it can cause death.In mature plants it causes growth disturbance and production failure.Even under severe water stress causing the flowers and teats to dry out, the fruit size, the yield and rendement to decrease.
Soil conservation is needed in cocoa cultivation because rainfall cannot be fully absorbed by the soil, some of it flows over the soil surface and can cause erosion.In plantations with denser canopies, erosion will be smaller than at wider spacings.Likewise with the presence of cover crops, erosion will be reduced.Based on observations, several activities in land preparation that must be implemented [17] are (a) terraces construction consisting of bench terraces, hillside terraces and individual terraces depending on the slope of the land, (b) planting shade trees like their natural habitat in tropical forests, (c) determining the spacing of plants, and (d) rectangular-holes digging with the functions in addition to drainage holes, as well as placement of organic fertilizers.Additional activities to suppress erosion and improve surface soil temperature and moisture conditions by using mulching or planting ground cover.

Integrated pest management
Based on the Government Regulation No 12/1992 and No 6/1995, pests control activities are the responsibility of the government and farmers by implementing an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) system, therefore IPM Field Schools have been established at the farmer level so that farmers are willing to apply various technologies that has been produced by the Research Centre.All the technologies taught are focused on environmentally friendly control [18], including pruning, sanitation, frequent harvesting, conservation, and biological control (natural enemies).
Control using natural enemies, namely a combination of Beauveria bassiana and jatropha seed pesticides, has been shown to be effective in reducing H. antonii attacks [19].Research on various vegetable pesticides is being studied at production centres in Bone, South Sulawesi.The two formulas showed more satisfactory results than the other formulas [20].Likewise with the cultivation of citronella grass between cocoa plants.Its function is as a conservation plant and reduce damage to cocoa plants.The results of Daswir's research [21] showed that planting citronella with a slope of > 30% could increase cocoa bean yields > 40% ha -1 year -1 and reduce damage to cocoa plants by pests by 25%.Control with cultivation techniques by combining all techniques such as frequent harvesting, pruning, sanitation, and fertilization can reduce C. cramerella pest attacks well.This method can reduce C. cramerella pest attacks [19,22,23].The level of pest attack on cocoa plantations is still very high, because farmers prefer easy and inexpensive control methods due to limited capital so that chemical pesticides are more often chosen (small packages and easy to obtain).

Pruning
Pruning is an activity that is very necessary in cocoa maintenance, however, it is one of the three major components that make up production costs after fertilization and pest control.The purpose of pruning cocoa plants is for health and increased fruit production [24].Pruning keeps the plant moist so it is not attacked by pests.There are four types of pruning namely form pruning, maintenance pruning, production pruning and rejuvenation pruning.
Form pruning is intended to have plant-balance so that all the leaves get sunlight.Plants are pruned at the age of 8-12 months and 18-24 months by removing primary branches that are no longer viable, removing secondary branches that are too close to the jorquet, the distribution of secondary branches is arranged so that they are zigzag.The height is always maintained until 3-4 m.
Maintenance pruning is intended for growing well enough without pests and diseases by removing some of the leaves on branches that are too dense, pruning branches above 3.5 m and removing hanging leaves so they don't hinder the growth of the branches, in this case it is called wiwilan.
Continuous production pruning with maintenance pruning to maximize plant productivity, by trimming the leaves so that they are not too dense, so that the sun is spread over all the leaves and the circulation of photosynthetic results is spread from the leaves to all parts of the plant.Finally, the plants can produce well.
Things to note in pruning are (a) don't always prune large branches because it will stimulate intensive shoot growth, (b) jorket must be protected from sunlight because the cells will dry up and branches become brittle, (c) primary branches must also be protected from sunlight directly so that the flower bearings do not die and (d) not using blunt pruning tools which will damage the bark and flower bearings.

Disscussion 4.1. Challenges
Based on SWOT analysis it was found that the development of cocoa cultivation through the improvement of the application of technologies in line with environmental preservation towards sustainability has good prospects for increasing national production and productivity so that the target is achieved.However, there are many challenges that must be encountered in several production centres in Central Java and East Java [25].
As previously explained, the components of most farming costs are fertilizing, pest control and pruning.99 percent of cocoa farmers are smallholders with limited capital; therefore, cocoa is planted on narrow land because they must share with other annual crops that can provide added value if cocoa does not bear fruit.Cacao cultivation tends to have low productivity due to various reasons: (1) crops are only fertilized sparingly if they have money (they don't apply balanced technology), (2) plants are rarely pruned so moisture is not maintained (pest attacks are quite high), (3) most farmers like to choose chemical pesticides because they are assisted by the local government, choosing botanical pesticides is more complicated to process.It can be concluded that farmers tend not to apply the recommended technology.
Based on survey results, 55% of the plantations are very old, this causes the plants to be susceptible to pests and diseases.Rehabilitation with side/shoot grafting was not carried out because no one provided examples from friends or the heads of farmer groups.Even though side/shoot grafting technology is the easiest way to improve plant productivity [26].Processing of yields is the keyword for increasing the added value of farmers' income.The taste of fermented farmer's product processing is better than unfermented, so the price of exported products becomes more expensive, but unfortunately exporters buy fermented beans with not much different price from unfermented, so farmers are reluctant to ferment.Of the 4 production centres surveyed in Central Java and East Java, only farmers in Pacitan are willing to ferment because cocoa beans are bought at a higher price.

Opportunity
There are many challenges that must be faced in the development of cocoa in Indonesia, however, there are still opportunities that can be exploited by smallholders, private plantation companies and local governments.The plantation area is still large enough to be used as cocoa plantations, both open land and land under plantations of other annual crops such as coconut or forestry plants.Cocoa requires shade for its growth as a tropical forest plant, because only about 75% of sunlight is needed.
Export opportunities for cocoa products are still quite large at present in the form of cocoa butter and oil (63.57%), cocoa powder (15.62%), non-fat cocoa paste (6.84%), cocoa beans (6.19%) and fatty pasta (4.12%).All of them are exported with a value of 1,244 184,000 USD to 10 world destinations (USA, Malaysia, Netherlands, China, Australia etc).
The average monthly price of cocoa for the last three years in the country is still very stable at Rp. 20,000 kg -1 , -for unfermented beans and Rp.25,000 kg -1 for fermented beans.This is why farmers are attracted to continue maintaining their cocoa farms, because there is an added value fermenting the beans.Likewise, export prices on the world market are still stable (2.1-2.72 USD) and still have added value for export if the beans are processed [27].
Manipulation of the environment by applying various friendly technologies is an opportunity to reduce pest attacks, including making holes between plants for conservation and sanitation, pruning cocoa trees and covering them to keep moisture (micro-climate) under the plant canopy, harvesting frequently thereby reducing the chances of fruit-borers to lay eggs in fruit grooves, balanced fertilization to utilize crop and livestock waste and reduce the spread of pests and diseases.Reducing the use of chemical pesticides and increasing the use of botanical pesticides [28,29] that exist in nature and natural enemies (B.bassiana, weaver ants, red ants will balance the ecosystem in nature [30,31].A high opportunity for biological control of the main pests in cocoa plantations is the presence of organisms that are beneficial and act as parasites/predators, namely black ants (Dolichodorus thoracicus), entomopathogenic fungi (Beauveria bassiana and Phaecilomyces fumosoroseus), and egg parasitoids (Trichogrammatoidea spp.and Erythemelus helopeltidis) [18].

Conclusion
The main problems that cause decreased productivity of cocoa in Indonesia are pest attack, aging of most plants and the reluctance of farmer to adopt cultivation and IPM technology.Implementation of sustainable and environmentally friendly IPM and cultivation and technologies in the cocoa plantations could increase cocoa productivity.For executing these program, human resources especially extension services will the one of components that needs to be considered.

Table 1 .
Percentage of Farmers whose plantation attacked by (%) Tabel 3. Percentage of Farmer whose crops are managed with fertilization, control and pruning (%) Availability of TechnologyThe problems of the cocoa development have been discussed in the paragraph above, of course there must be an effort to restore Indonesia's position as a cocoa producing country from number 6 to number 3 or even number 2 in the world whenever possible.The area that has continued to increase until 2016 continues to decrease until 2022.Attempts are to be made not to decrease area but must be maintained through intensification and rehabilitation.Sufficient supporting technology has been available since the Cocoa Research Centre was established by both the Government and the private sector which are expected to join forces to develop cocoa plantations.Supporting technologies related to pest, disease and environmental management are described in the following paragraphs.Sca 6, MCC 01 and MCC 02.While those originating from abroad are SCa 12 from Ecuador and TSH 565, TSH 516 and TSH 774 from Trinidad [13]1 Selection of plant materials.The incidence of pest attacks is almost evenly distributed in all cocoa plantations.The limited ability of farmers in the availability of capital is a challenge in providing easy and inexpensive technological innovations, so that farmers can carry out proper crop maintenance.According to Samsudin[13], resistant/tolerant varieties are the easiest way to use because they are highly compatible when combined with various other control components and can maintain the existing biodiversity in their environment.Screening results from the Cacao Research Centre in Jember obtained 3 C. cramerella resistant clones namely KW 570, KW 397, and KW 566, but their productivity was very low.In Sabah, C. cramerella resistant clones, namely PBC 123 and IMC 23, have been commercialized[14].Superior varieties that are tolerant to fruit rot are DRC 16, ICCRI 1, ICCRI 2, ICCRI 3, ICCRI 4,