Ivory Coast cocoa growers fear to return to farms

In 2002, rebels tried unsuccessfully to topple President Laurent Gbagbo. After a short war, they held onto the north of the country, where members of the mainly Muslim population had long complained of marginalization by the mostly Christian south, where political power has long been centered.

The war exacerbated ethnic tensions, which trigger periodic cycles of tit-for-tat killings between locals seeking to reclaim what they regard as ancestral lands and "outsiders" - be they from neighboring countries or other parts of Ivory Coast.

Zoungrana has been to visit his farm in Zeaglo village, with help from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) which runs the camp, but says for now all he can do is wait.

"We would like to get back before the harvest, but there's no way," he said.

In the West African country's lush forest belt, cocoa trees tend to produce pods throughout the year, but the main crop is concentrated between October and March.

Harvests since the war have averaged around 1.3 million tonnes a year and the western area produces about 200,000 tonnes a year.

Zoungrana said local people were harvesting his cocoa, but did not have the skill nor the will to manage the farm.

He invoked the oft-cited stereotype of western Ivorians used to easily gathering food from the fertile, rain-drenched land, unlike northern tribes used to toiling over arid soil.

"They just take the cocoa without looking after the field. Since we left they haven't even taken a machete to tidy it up."

Left untended, cocoa groves are rapidly overgrown with weeds which choke the trees and reduce their ability to bear fruit.