Tillers make a great difference in farming. It can do the work in one hour, what a traditional farmer can do in eight hours or more. I have a small tiller about 20 pounds in weight and boy, it is a workhorse, that can weed the beds also, giving any farmer more time to concentrate on caring for his plants. So that a big plus.

These farmers should also look into forest farming techniques for their cocoa plantations. There is no need for slash and burn. Many forest plants and trees have evolved complex interdependent biosystems of nourishmnet and protection in the Amazon rain forest. The technique is to just clear enough space for your cocoa plants to get sunlight.

Trees cut down in the process should be cut up into blocks and placed around the cocoa plants along with other rotted vegetation, that way mushroom spores can speed up the organic breakdown of matter to provide natural fertilizer in the proccess.

These farmers also need to get farming software, to document every aspect of the growing proccess from seed to market. With the availability of cell phones with cameras, the farmer can keep actual pictures of their crops on a hard drive.

The government should have a similiar database that can compare farming data with such problems as pest and fungus infestation and what remedies are available.

If they are unable to purchase an off the shelf piece of software, anyone with knowledge of windows visual basic can design such a piece of software.

Joe.