EVALUATION OF THE BEHAVIOR OF RUBBER TEAS IN THE MARGINAL ZONE OF COTE DIVOIRE: CASE OF THE LOCALITIES OF MAN, TOUMODI AND PRIKRO

For a better orientation of Ivorian rubber cultivation in new areas of occupation, a study with the main objective of evaluating the behavior of rubber trees, with a view to better orientation of the extension of this culture was undertaken in the localities of Man, Toumodi and Prikro. The plant material used was rubber tree clones. During this study, the methodology consisted of evaluatingthe evolution of trees at 1.7m from the ground for mature plants and 1m from the ground for immature plants by measuring the circumference of the trees planted with a tape measure on different biotopes and soil textures previously defined. Production, dry notch rate and dry notch length of mature trees was also measured on the same parameters of the previous crop and texture. The results revealed thatthe previous cultivation of the rubber plots influences the mortality rate of the plants with a low rate observed in Man (17.30%) on the previous forest, also the trees had good growth on this previous one in Man (8.5cm.year-1) and Prikro (9cm.year-1). At ground level, the plants had a better level of radial growth in the localities of Man (8.30 and 9.06 cm.year-1) and Prikro (8.01 cm.year-1) with a more texture clayey (25% < clay < 50%). The average rubber production was also better in Man on the previous forest crop (63.85 ± 15.1 g.a-1s-1) similarly for the more clayey texture (25% < clay < 50%) with 63.27 ± 6 .1 g.a-1s-1. Rubber production from these new localities was generally good. So, through the results of this investigation, it should be noted that new rubber growing areas could be an asset for rubber production in Côte dIvoire. As a result, this culture can be encouraged in these areas, but with monitoring and supervision of producers on good agricultural practices.