Government has indicated that fighting the black sigatoka disease in Dominica has taken a significant toll on the nation’s purse.
Agriculture Minister Mathew Walter told Parliament on Tuesday that in excess of $600,000 has been spent so far to fight the disease.
“The expenditure for black sigatoka is about $286,000. In additions to that, government has ordered additional chemicals in excess of $360,000. It is very expensive to manage and control the disease. Not only in Dominica but in all countries where it is present,” he said.
According to Walter, the disease is being contained in Dominica, although there have been reported case of new infections.
“What we fear is that for the disease to spread throughout the country. It is present in the south east, east, and north and in the central region,” he said.
He said the new infection was detected in Wesley. “Not too long ago, we have detected a plantain field in Wesley; we sent a sample to Martinique. The results came back positive so we can say that it is present there. We also made an observation that it is present in Concord,” he explained.
An estimate of $3.3 million dollars was presented to cabinet to manage the disease.
This is very worrying. Hopefully this will be eradicated and examined to control such outbreaks in the future.
How can it be said to be contained when “there have been reported cases of new infections”?
It has not been contained – It is spreading!
Stop playing around with words.
I wonder if our efforts are not too late as I understand Geest may be considering stopping loading bananas in Dominica because of the low volume being supplied for shipping to the U.K. I would like to hear the Min. of Agriculture’s comment on this. Hopefully he will be able to categorically deny these rumours.
Black Sigatoka killing our agriculture, Bandits rubbing our tourists killing our tourist industry, Chavez dead. Skewo, what we gonna do? Alas papa bodieux nous fini.
I disagree with the headline. It should be “Black Sigatoka being Eradicated!” Something like that.
If you are going to talk about toll on nation’s purse start with the State Palace for example.
Assuming that’s the real cost and half of it was syphoned off into the unknowns
that is exactly how you spend money. To grow and protect the economy. If we dont effectively get rid of the disease our food supply suffers and from there its obvious.
That’s money well spent!
Sorry should read – Assuming that’s the real cost and half of it was not syphoned off into the unknowns etc etc etc