Mini-excavator expected to reduce cost of citrus planting materials

Dominica's citrus is under serious threat by the citrus greening disease
Dominica’s citrus is under serious threat by the citrus greening disease

A mini excavator has been presented to the Ministry of Agriculture Citrus Certification Program (CCP) which, it is expected, will provide planting materials to farmers at reduced cost.

On Wednesday, in a brief ceremony, National Authorizing Officer Carleen Roberts, handed over the equipment on behalf of the European Union (EU) funded Banana Accompanying Measures (BAM) program.

“Having this equipment will basically assist in improving the situation in that you do not have to use manual labor to pick up the material or excavate it and load it on to vehicles; it will be done mechanically through this equipment,” Program Officer for Banana Accompanying Measures (BAM), Angus Mc Intyre, said. “So the output of that is actually going to be a sustainable sort of project, where you can produce your own medium and as a result, you will be able to provide the planting materials of citrus plants to famers at a much reduced cost or maybe a maintained cost,” he stated.

McIntyre said this is is part of the continuing collaboration between the EU and Dominica as the EU has in the past funded the screen houses and other important areas in the CCP.

Meantime Coordinator of the CCP Joseph Blandford noted that the equipment will put an end to the yearly struggles that they encounter when preparing for planting.

“I think that this piece of equipment will go a long way in assisting us. As I said soil is not something that you could go and buy a dumper load, almost any way you sight a good top soil you would want to capture it as quick as possible to ensure that you have the material for medial preparations. So I see there this piece of equipment will assist us in easing up the stresses that we encounter with getting good quality materials,” he pointed out.

According Blandford, the CCP has capacity for up to 40,000 plants and that means a lot of potting material, and this equipment will also enable them to work in a timely manner.

He said the CCP is about to go into its second phase of production, “so it (the excavator) comes at a time where it can give us a boost, give us a push.”

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture Harold Guiste spoke highly of the BAM program and stated that it is going to advance agricultural development in the country.

“We are going to see a rehabilitation and advancement of the citrus production in our country. As we know citrus have been given a severe blow, by various diseases and this piece of equipment is going to assist us in our recovery program and we are very thankful.”

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10 Comments

  1. Patriot
    April 19, 2014

    Thank you farmer/clarification, I am reading this article and am saying the same thing. The sentence constructions are terrible. The whole artide is very pooly written, how can the use of an equipment make planting materials cheaper. Please mr reporter take some more time when you are writing stories so we can get the full gist.

  2. farmer
    April 18, 2014

    “Authorizing Officer Carleen Roberts, handed over the equipment on behalf of the European Union (EU) funded Banana Accompanying Measures (BAM) program.

    “Having this equipment will basically assist in improving the situation in that you do not have to use manual labor to pick up the material or excavate it and load it on to vehicles; it will be done mechanically through this equipment,”
    what exactly does this mean. This report is badly written and makes no sense, How is the excavator going to facilitate cheaper planting material?

    • Anonymous
      April 19, 2014

      well if u knew how thing was really happening to provide citrus plants then u would understand how such equipment would reduce costs.. .
      as well as provide assistance in other areas since the agriculture dept doesn’t own such a machine. please do not judge mr farmer

  3. Tumble Back kick
    April 18, 2014

    Stop exposing our shortcomings in Da. Show us the picture, give people stats to digest. Each Farmer should have a tractor and or Mini escavator on his farm Much less for the Ministry of A in 2014. What else does the Mini escavator do to increase output? Don’t tell me, use it for one year and then rot in the gardens. Big joke.

  4. clarification
    April 18, 2014

    I think the report is not clear at all. The purpose of the equipment is to assist the workers in collecting the medium ( top soil) rather than the manual labour they have been using. This will help in collecting a larger volume in a shorter space of time hence it will solve the problem of shortage of the growth medium. The equipment is not going to be used to load any plants on trucks. It going to be used to eacavate the top soil and load it on the trucks. Since there will be more growth medium available and the workers who would have been manually excavating the soil will then be used to plant the citrus there should be an increase in the availability of planting material. I think the reporters should take a second look at what they writer before the post it. Even if you are not versed in agriculture certain things you should still be able to tell when something don’t make sense. Especially as a reporter. That’s why you should never believe everything you read on the news. How it is donated under the BAM is a question the reporter should have found out also.

  5. concerned citizen
    April 17, 2014

    Clearly we are seeing that the people employed in agriculture have no plans and vision in in improving our Agriculture on island , though Dominica is not a very large country i cannot see how one excavator can assist farmers around the 300 sq mile island and the hundreds of farmers that are involved in agriculture, “mi sort”. in today’s world certain nations think that they should dominate agriculture around the world, we believe that this does not apply to us, we fail to see how certain diseases enter our environment and in most cases we use flimsy excuses to explain the introduction of certain pests and diseases, we tend to forget that these same people are killing millions by developing all kinds of diseases and using 3rd world countries as their guinea pigs while they make millions in pharmaceutical products pretending that they are offering treatment to combat the same disease. we need to demarcate our air space and our water lines around our country, since often times we see certain air and sea crafts flying over head or in our waters and we do not know what they are carrying, We need legislation in that regard and we need it urgently.

  6. Matriculation
    April 17, 2014

    Hey DNO, a picture of the ‘mini’ excavator would have been appropriate. Since it is difficult to see how an excavator became such a versatile farm equipment. Normally it’s tractors that are the workhorse of modern farms. Excavators are more closely associated with civil engineering and construction projects.

  7. Malgraysa
    April 17, 2014

    Please, explain how an excavator can provide planting material? I find the report confusing and not at all clear. And what has a piece of equipment provided under a banana improvement programme got to do with citrus?

  8. real madman
    April 17, 2014

    Hahhahahahh lol stupes so long banana die lol they talking bout bam or ram haha the lil escavator u get therr is for the banana revolution man. Farmers will get planting materials at a reduced cost which they still kia afford.my god .labour kill agriculture in the dominica.why they do build factory to for all the citrus that there wasting .they busy talking bout million dollaar 5 star hotel.help the farmers nor help them. ohhhh goddd!!

  9. Kalinago
    April 17, 2014

    As a result of the Citrus greening and the tristaza disease, it is my understanding that new resistant stocks will be introduced, just curious that the new stocks are not G M plants, cause we know of the effects G M plants are having on our soils and food stocks that are naturally grown.

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