The Use of 3S Technology to Assess Cocoa Swollen Shoot Virus Disease in Offinso Cocoa District Area, Ghana

The cocoa industry is ruined by Cocoa Swollen Shoot Virus Disease (CSSVD) caused by a virus transmitted by mealybugs. Initiatives by Ghana Cocoa Board to control the disease have not been all that successful over the years. The study aimed at exploring Geographic Information System (GIS), Remote Sensing (RS), and Global Position System (GPS) techniques to assess the prevalence of CSSVD in terms of their geographic locations by comparing the 2nd and 3rd Country Wide Surveys (CWS) undertaken by Cocoa Health and Extension Division (CHED) in the Offinso cocoa district of Ghana. Handheld GPS, GIS shapefiles, and Landsat 7 and 8 satellite images were used. Geo-spatial overlay operations of shapefiles and performances on NDVI computations yielded relationships between the 2nd and 3rd CWS on CSSVD farms over ten years period from 2009 to 2019. It was revealed that only 12.99 hectares of the disease are found in the 2nd CWS was persistent under the 3rd CWS and this was due to successful treatment of infected area during the 2nd CWS. Also, the health of cocoa under the 3rd CWS had improved to 262.89 hectares from the previously infected 275.89 hectares. Thus, treatment of the CSSVD was effective and the vegetative health index of the farms emanated from the treatment was also encouraging. The results show the impact on the control of CSSVD for the sustainable production of cocoa. In addition, the research method serves as a guideline for other related studies in an attempt to investigate, quantify and project CSSVD.