Preliminary comparative analysis of cocoa yield under three treatments in combination with oil palm in Nigeria

The study investigates the pattern of cocoa yield when cocoa is grown in combination with oil palm in specific layout patterns. The experimental design is randomized block design of six blocks and three treatments each containing cocoa and oil palm. The three treatments were Control, Avenue planting and the Hollow square arrangement. Equal size area ofland was used for cocoa in each plot. The experiment was started at Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria, at the old Gambari Experiment Station in 1965 in collaboration with the Nigerian Institute for Oil-Palm Research. The data in pods and dry weight beans per plot analysed covered the period from 1968/69 to 1978/79. The method used was the analysis of covariance. The adjusted mean yield of each treatment for the Control, Avenue and Hollow square arrangements was in the proportion 1.000 : 1.183 : 3.515 respectively. There were significant differences among the treatments, with the Hollow square arrangement> Avenue> Control at P <0.05.