In an attempt to eradicate the deadly Black Sigatoka disease on the island the Ministry of Agriculture has partnered with the Ministry of Trade through the National Employment Program (NEP) and has employed 28 individuals to eradicate abandoned and infected fields.
Speaking at a press conference on Thursday morning, Head of Plant Protection and Quarantine Unit, Ryan Anselm, expressed concerns that there are 350 infected and abandoned fields in Dominica.
“In May the Ministry of Trade through the National Employment Program approved 28 persons to be employed to eliminate these abandoned fields. The way we have distributed these individuals is four persons per team with one supervisor heading that team in seven agricultural regions,” he said.
According to him, the Ministry of Agriculture has always stressed on sanitization as the main method for eradicating the disease and as such the function of these 28 individuals is very important.
“The elimination of these abandoned fields will assist the management strategy, the management plan, it will reduce the inoculation of black sigatoka in the field. Part of this strategy is to reduce the amount of abandoned fields in Dominica,” he stated.
Ryan noted that farmers were notified in 2012 that the abandoned fields must to be eliminated in accordance with Section 15 of the Plant Protection and Quarantine Act.
“We are notifying them by giving them a letter, we’ve revised the letter and since we have individuals outside the Plant Protection, what we’ve done we’ve given them the power to do it on behalf of the Ministry. On Monday informing the farmers,” he stated.
Black Sigatoka was first detected in Dominica in July, 2012.
Plant ganja instead……. problem fixed.
agriculture is a has been industry…… famous saying by IVOY NASSIF, yet he and his family open a supper market after he told that to DOMINICAN
The officials noted that the total cost of one spray cycle is about a hundred and ten thousand dollars (EC$110,000.00). For the effective control of Black Sigatoka is it RECOMMENDED to do a spray cycle every 15-21 days. Over 1 million dollars has already been spent in the disease control. Clearly we see an already unsustainable economic cost. But the real question is .. at what ENVIRONMENTAL cost are we gonna “control” that disease!!!!
I agree with your concern. At what environmental cost? We need to look at other methods.
Can the MOA give us an estimated ACREAGE of abandoned banana/plantain fields … saying that there are three hundred and fifty (350) infected abandoned banana and plantain fields is not sufficient from a top management standpoint. Can we assume a conservative figure of 350 acres!!! What is the current national acreage of banana/plantain production.
But.. Matthew say agriculture is doing well…
Our bananas got the Sigatoka disease about 8 months ago. Our banana plants are now completely without the disease and producing really delicious bananas disease free. So I suggest that this will happen to other farms with bananas on them!!! We actually have totally organic land. Our land has not been sprayed with anything at all for over 8 years, whether this has anything to do with the fact that our bananas are now free of the disease I do not know.
Anselm farmers must abandon their farms,you and Skerro are not doing nothing to help the farmers,skerro is getting himself rich.
with a non caring government… chikungunya and black sigatoga will be able to thoroughly take over before something will be done about it but YES! WE CARE!
There is more plagues coming on the country if we don’t love each other and change our wicked ways. The writing is on the wall. Mosquito disease, banana disease, Aids, unemployment, crimes especially by our youth , it is time we wake up and see we are heading in the bad direction. When you turn your back on your creator, what do we expect. It is like a child turning their back on their parents. God help us.
And here comes Superman! yes come and play psycho on farmers.
hmmmm, like you so care….. come with package for farmers for votes.. We waiting!
very incompetent Government who are reactive to situations\..its good to acknowledge that 350 farms has been abandoned… thanks to the min of agriculture for not coming to the rescue of the farmers… just go and deleaf was the solution, no spray oil, no fungicide…… no compensation to replant or diversify.
What about all the abandoned plots all over the island. Not just fields. I know of a plots on a small estate where the owners are not interested in building yet. Have planted banana and then just left it. Black Sigatoka all over the plot. Fighting a losing battle.
mr anslem I am so disappointed in you that I think you should remain silent like those lazy ministers on matters of importance….
first of all the disease in a fungi which is spread by wind and can also be host to the balizier, a plant with leaves that resembles a banana tree leaf, there are to many balizier trees in the forest that we can treat.
we need spray planes and helicopter to go into war on this fungi.
cutting down the fields cannot in itself help
Because of Dominica’s topography I would think aerial application would be impractical…..no?
nonsense, it was done in the past with the same topagraphy
That is incorrect.
first of all don’t even go there…
what about wind drift, have you given this thought?
and how many acres of balizier trees on flat land do we have to allow aerial spraying, balizier trees are everywhere, behind people homes, among people crops, on the roadside etc…. it’s not water or oil they are spraying with, the chemical is very potent
what would happen to our organic farmers?
This is just isn’t feasible for Dominica. Be more scientific and practical.
My main problem with this program is;
the banana trees close to the roadside should have first hand priority. since we are dealing with spores and they can easily be spread , they are the ones they should be tackling first, because a farmer walking or driving on the roadside to his farm can be easily infested and voila, easy as abc his farm gets infected .
my suggestions are; all infected trees should be destroyed and be replaced with tissue cultured plants of the same variety which will allow clean planting materials for farmers which won’t enable the farmer to spread the disease by transporting and planting infested plants
OR
introduce resistant varieties, who knows we might just like it!