By Maytaal Angel

BRUSSELS, April 24 (Reuters) - Farmers who grow about

40% of the world's cocoa are earning record prices for their

crops and could raise output significantly as early as next

season, a leading cocoa expert said on the sidelines of the

World Cocoa Conference in Brussels.

Tropical Research Services' Steve Wateridge said farmers

outside top producers Ivory Coast and Ghana now have more than

enough funds to fertilise and spray their trees with pesticide,

as well as to prune.

Such crop care can boost yields significantly in the season

after they are implemented, leading to higher output.

This contrasts with increased plantings, which typically

takes three to four years to result in increased output.

Wateridge cautioned, however, that it was too early to say

whether the global cocoa market, which is widely expected to

register a third successive deficit this season, will manage to

avoid a fourth deficit next season.

He noted that farmers in Ivory Coast and Ghana, who together

produce about 60% of the world's cocoa, have yet to benefit in

full from record global prices because of how their governments

buy, sell and set farmgate prices.

This means farmers might not be in a position to invest in

their cocoa trees.

The world's top two producers are also battling adverse

weather and a crippling outbreak of swollen shoot disease on an

estimated 20-40% of their cocoa-growing land.

No. 2 producer Ghana's cocoa industry has also been ravaged

by illegal gold mining and sector mismanagement.

As a result of the troubles in the world's two biggest

producers, seen as structural or long term by many market

participants, cocoa prices have nearly tripled over the

past six months, hitting profits for leading chocolate makers

such as Hershey and Mondelez ( MDLZ ).

(Reporting by Maytaal Angel

Editing by Nigel Hunt and David Goodman

)