Cocoa trees are being ravaged by a disease with no known cure

LONDON - It is a nightmare scenario for a cocoa farmer: walking through your plantation you spot some red-veined leaves. Maybe it is a big lump on one of the branches.

Ghana has cut its crop forecast by 11 per cent this season because of the disease, people familiar with the matter said previously. About 16 per cent of the country's cocoa crops are infected, according to George Ameyaw, a senior scientist at the Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana. "Looking at the Ghana situation, it's bad, very, very bad""I wish more people would understand the sort of magnitude of the lives impacted," said Judith Brown, a virologist studying swollen shoot at the University of Arizona."It's affecting people who rely on it 100 per cent for their income."

To help address the problem, scientists from Africa, Europe and the US formed an international task force to share information, said Herve Bisseleua, a scientist and director at the World Cocoa Foundation's Ghana office.

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