A major boost is on the way for Dominica’s banana and plantain crops which have been ravaged by the deadly fungus, Back Sigatoka.
At a banana and plantain stakeholders meeting at the Botanic Gardens on Wednesday, it was revealed that over US$600,000 has been allocated for the revival of the two crops in the island’s agricultural industry.
Head of the Plant Protection and Quarantine Services in the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Ryan Anselm, noted that several stakeholder,s such as Fairtrade, Caribbean Agricultural Research Development Institute (CARDI), Dominica Agricultural Producers and Exporters (DAPEX) Ltd and the Multi-Purpose Pack Houses, are coming together to be part of that intitiative.
“So all these institutions will have projects with some financial resources to invest in the banana and plantain sub sector,” he said.
According to him Black Sigatoka “significantly affected” the banana and plantain sub sector, affecting some 35 percent in terms of reduction in yields and 30-50 percent income loss to farmers in terms of export and the local market.
He said, as such it was recognized that the government, the private sector and institutions such as CARDI, ICCA, and FAO, must invest in the banana sub sector.
He stated that these two crops have significantly contributed to the economy of Dominica, providing employment for hundreds of rural families.
Anselm noted that the sub sector must be restructured to improve competitiveness and productivity.
“Presently the farmers are producing 4-5 tons per acre,” he stated. “Our goal in the first year is to increase that to 10 tons and in the second year 10-15 tons. So we have to be productive, to be competitive, and we also have to look at diversification because of the increased incidence of diseases it is going to be extremely difficult to produce bananas like in the past. So we have to structure the industry in a way where we can take advantage of our soils, our agro climatic zones and to fight against climate change incidents.”
Officer in Charge of the CARDI Dominica Office, Dorian Etienne, pointed out that the 30-month project is funded by the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) in the tune of US $625,000.
The project is dubbed “Development on an Integrated Disease Management Program, on Black Sigatoka in Dominica and the other Windward Islands and Guyana.”
“The project is expected to lead to an improvement in the capacity of stakeholders to monitor the disease of Black Sigatoka and to implement appropriate strategies to reduce the impact of the disease at the farm level,” Etienne said.
He informed that the long term benefits will include an increase in the number of sustainable and financially viable banana and plantain farms, as well as improvements in farmer income and return on investments.
The main components of the project includes the development of an integrated disease management program and stakeholder capacity training.
Etienne noted that an integrated disease management approach is necessary because the systematic sequence of fungicides is both expensive and increases the probability of developing tolerant fungal population, “and using an integrated management approach it will inform the disease forecasting system, should there be a need for that.”
The ultimate goal of the program is to empower farmers to engage in sustainable farming of bananas and plantains.
The main activities include importing Black Sigatoka resistant banana and plantain varieties (which will be sourced from the Honduras Foundation for Agricultural Research (HFAR), win and harden those plantlets, establish six experiment fields in the importing banana and plantain growing agricultural zones, conduct stakeholder’s capacity building in implementing the Black Sigatoka in equated disease management strategy, and to evaluate market acceptability for the varieties.
Yes Labour I glad to hear how much money you have for farmers but since 2012 – I take my money and cater for seminars fo you all and can’t get paid. Dirty dogs
The government has neglected he banana industry and you really believe $600,000 will revive it.
I just returned from a 2 week vacation in Dominica. While there, I visited a farm. I have always liked to till the soil, so I always take time to visit my friend’s farm whenever I am in Dominica.
Some years ago the area was teeming with banana plantations. This time I saw oranges, dasheens, yams, avocadoes, coffee (a few bearing plants) and peppers.
There are a few farms close to each other. I took a walk along the roadway and I must have seen a total of 5 banana trees.
I stayed at my aunt’s home and about 10 days into my stay I realized I had not seen a banana on my place the entire time I was there. I asked my aunt why she never cooked any bananas and she told me, bananas are hard to find these days.
Growing up I remember walking to the boxing plants and there were so many bananas that farmers would give away the hands that were rejected. They could not sell the stuff. Now, depending on where you live, you cannot even buy it.
Going back to my trip to my friends farm, the road was in a very deplorable condition. I thought the government had given up on the road in that particular village. He assured me that most of the feeder roads on the island were in similar condition.
In short, if they are really serious about revitalizing the industry, it will take a lot more than $600,000 to do that.
Better late than never ! What is suspicious about this is that we are not hearing the DLP raving about it in their campaign.I am beginning to believe that this Black sigatoka was was left to festered in Dominica to debilitate the Farmers of this country and make them dependent of You know who !
Only now during the election fever, much too late after mass distruction of our crops Man come again.
U WP will take care of Agriculture Labour made a mess of our export thinking we could live on handouts.
Change is Change is on the way, we voting the saw.
The importation of Sigatoka RESISTANT strain of bananas? At least I learnt something new, or did I? Stop fool people. So $56,041.66 EC per month, How will that money be spent? What happened to the IICA lab at the Gardens?And tisssue culture? Are you going to set up a lab and nursery, or we will import plants for 30 months? Boy all you fellas …… Better all you than me!
People vote for di man Labour really Ka Twa Vai.Olu doe see di pic of the healthy banana leaf.No banana tree in the world have a healthy leaf so.
in other words half a million dollars for the project (de other 100,000 is for kick back, de big boys have to get something on de side)
32 million dollars for labour party campaign and only approx. 1/2 a million to save Banana? The should be main crop……our economic stability for jobs and money in peoples pocket?
Will and come again
TO LATE shall be your cry
I`m laughing M.A O. and saying Election fever is allowing all neglected issues to come to the fore. I like it” I like IT”. Win loose or draw we know it`s good to have a good position to keep the fire burning and the issues are magically coming to the table. But the train has left the station.
Now all you wake up man?