Rains eased in the past week in Ivory Coast's main cocoa regions and farmers welcomed lengthy sunny spells that were useful for drying beans as the harvesting of the October-March main crop intensifies.
"It just rained once this week and it has been very hot," said farmer Marcel Aka in the key cocoa town of Daloa.
"The sunny weather is good because it will help keep down disease because when there's too much humidity, that can attract insects. It will also help with drying beans," he said.
Cocoa trees are prone to infestation by bugs, which can pierce cocoa pods causing them to rot, or burrow into the trunk or branches of the trees.
Aka said rainfall and soil moisture were sufficient to sustain cocoa production until next year and other farmers such as Labbe Zoungrana in the south-western port town of San Pedro said they were hopeful of good output this main crop.
"We're on our way to a very good campaign," he said.
The strike was suspended until Wednesday after the government promised to study the farmers' demands. President Laurent Gbagbo was expected to meet a delegation of farmers later on Tuesday to discuss their grievances.
In the south-western Soubre region at the heart of the cocoa belt in the world's top grower, farmer Innocent Zamble in the town of Meagui said there had been three showers there during the week but the same lengthy sunny periods.
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