Three years after the discovery of the Black Sigatoka disease on island, the Ministry of Agriculture is developing best practices to control the spread of the disease.
One of these practices is de-leafing, which seeks to remove infected leaves from the banana or plantain plant, to prevent the spread of the disease.
In instances where chemical control is advised, proper de-leafing techniques can help maximize the chemical’s effectiveness.
When done properly it can significantly reduce the spread of the disease.
Black Sigatoka Management Coordinator, Carol Abraham explains why farmers must de-leaf at the right stage before chemicals can be used.
She explained that one must, “Know the stages. Know when to remove the leaves because they are important for photosynthesis to provide food for the plant and the bunch. Remove anything which is diseased; you want to thin your mat, you don’t want too many suckles because that increases the humidity.
She added, “You want to control weeds because when the fungus will thrive and you will have no control of the Sigatoka after a while.”
Without the proper de-leafing techniques the use of chemical control will become obsolete.
Head of the Plant Protection and Quarantine Unit, Ryan Anselm says proper sanitation, chemical control, de-leafing and nutrition all contribute to the management of the disease.
If people have plants as also flower plants and they notice the leaves are dried, in the processing of drying up or dead, do they not take off those leaves to allow new leaves to grow? I would think it is the same with the banana tree to de-leaf the trees as advised prior to spraying chemicals on them. Does this not make sense?
They have to try every possible method to free the banana tree of this disease. Why not de-leaf them?
Nothing beats a failure but a trial. If at first you do not succeed, try again and another method. That is life which is full of trials and errors but we must never give up. Keep prodding on and one day you will find a solution and end to this banana disease called Black Sigatoka. Keep a positive outlook.
that same old story eh…… you all a sick in that country…….. its too late now …. now its complete cut back and replant…
The management of the Black sigatoka disease is a clear reflection of the management of the Agricultural sector in Dominica. The Ministry of Agriculture do not have the technical personnel nor the management capacity to service the Banana Industry. The control of Black sigatoka is only one aspect of the services required to rebuild the Industry. Since the 1950’s it was recognized that a separate institution is needed to provide the necessary services to support to this international agri-business.
The solutions will start when the Government goes to Parliament and re-establish a Banana institution with the responsibility of servicing the industry.
This guy is so full of crap! If you cut off they the yellow and black levees and the green leaves are already contaminated what is going to prevent the green leaves from dying also. De-leafing my foot, his kind like to play words so that people may believe he is talking something which makes sense; utter rubbish!
The fact is the disease is carried by the wind, they only way that clown will succeed in elimination the problem, he has to put a dome over the entire country, in fact not only a dome, hence only a bubble will do; the whole country, animals, people and plants will have to live within a bubble. What happened to the two thousand banana plants he was importing form France to eliminate the problem?
Poor fool!
what dca need to do and should have done from day 1 is scrap that that leafing nonsense BS is a fungus so by the time u see the evidence on the leaves its way to late u need to sterilize the entire field if one plant is infected u root out and burn every single plant in the entire field uproot them all cut them up and burn every single one as i said before its a fungus by the time u see the evidence its already to late. after u rot up and burn all the plants in the field u spray the field and make sure its sterilized those half cast measures u all advising the farmers to do is whats killign the industry look at how much bananas st lucia is exporting now and they had the same black sigatoga problem that dominica have
One thing you have to remember is that when these nobody clowns come from nowhere, and the foolish people of Dominica vote for them, the day they win their seat, they automatically become geniuses in everything. They become doctors, priest, pope, gods scientists and everything that goes along with it.
They become the only people who knows how to solve everything, they developed a resolved for every ill plaguing the world, nevertheless, our country remains backwards and un-developed. If that man had any commence, he would seek some knowledge regarding the, PATHOGEN: Mycosphaerella fijiensis – found in nearly all the world’s banana-growing regions. Watch this now:The unfurling and youngest fully expanded leaves on large plants and suckers are the most susceptible to infection. As the leaves mature, they become resistant to infection. If the suckers are also infected, de-leafing wil not help since everything is infected, he must babble anyway; pretend he is in controle of something!
farmers are deleafing so much, that the banana plants are bunching without any leaves and the size of the bunch is rediculously small…. Ryan and carol need to admitt that they are going about this combatting BS the wrong way… the farmers are doing all what is needed and the authorities are failing them every time. can you imagine no fungicide or spraytex are available when needed? magwa sah and allu serious about fighting the disease..i bet when this cycle of spraying is done they gonna scratch head to find more oil and fungicide. wso long the PM say he allocated $300,000. where is it? allu doh get it yet/? or after parliament?
the Minister of Agriculture say less talk and more action, but all we hearing is talk talk talk… allu telling famers cut back, but who is reimbursing the farmer? is not 5 cents to replant a field u…
we not serious about Agriculture in this country….