Head of the Plant Protection and Quarantine Unit, Ryan Anselm, has announced that from this month, the Ministry of Agriculture plans to enforce the Plant Protection Act, to cut down abandoned fields.
He said this has become necessary to ensure more effective use of the resources deployed to manage the Black Sigatoka Disease.
“If you have abandoned fields, if your field is deemed and classified abandoned, the Ministry is going to employ teams to cut down these abandoned fields,” Anselm warned. “This is a very serious message, because the resources…and the energies to manage Black Sigatoka, with all the spray teams and all the fertilizer, if we maintain these abandoned fields, island-wide, our energies and efforts will go in vain.”
He explained that the responsibility to manage the Black Sigatoka disease rests not only on large-scale farmers but on everyone involved in agriculture, even at a subsistence level. Farmers have been asked to remove infected leaves from the banana or plantain plant (de-leafing), to prevent the spread of the disease.
“We are asking the general public—not only the farmers, the household, the backyard farmers… We are asking you to do the necessary de-leafing because this can add to the inoculation level in the country.”
Anselm also noted that the cooperation of farmers is necessary in order to reclaim the highly profitable banana and plantain subsector.
“And so, farmers, the government of Dominica has put in the necessary inputs and resources, and so, we’re asking you to work with the Division of Agriculture, work with the Plant Protection and Quarantine Unit, for us to see how best we manage and bring the banana and plantain subsector to a level,” he said. “We won’t go back to the DBMC days, but there is still money to be made in banana and plantains. It is one of the number one fruits in the world, and so, we have to do all in our power to see the industry succeed.”
How about those 20,000 plantlets you got from France? Are they still alive? How many matured to produce fruit? That could be positive news if you could tell us that.
These men don’t want to resolved the Banana problem in Dominica, because what is holding them back from approaching St.Lucia to see and understand what they did that cause them to be back on track again, and have they ever sat down with the men on the Farmers cry?
The minister believe that burning down banana fields is the better way to go, he and his administration will have to come back with something much better than that, and if and when they distroy Farmers field they will compensate them.
I say it again. St. Lucia had black sikatoka before us. Their bananas are selling in the U.K. right now, ours are not because we don’t have any to ship.. We even have problems finding a decent hand of bananas locally for our own. What is the difference between us and St. Lucia?
Since the Black Sigatoga is playing havoc on the banana industry, I hope it will disappear someday. Pray for that.
I love bananas and plantains, cooked green or fried ripe.
I love ripe bananas. I usually eat one a day. It could also be done in a smoothie with some other fruit, if one so wish.
Let us hope they will not become extinct. The West Indies, Caribbean islands for that matter could not do without them. This is healthy food.
Google the health benefits of green bananas, plantains and ripe ones.
You must be a very lonely soul, talking to yourself like that.
We are going down, down, down fast as lead. No one, no body, scientist and all; have the answer or solution for the predicted inevitabilities that face this planet. Man, through his greed and quest for power has destroyed himself. There is no turning back. Soon all plants will die. Thus, the predicted famine will strike. Call it nonsense if you please; That doesn’t change anything. We have made gods of ourselves. Only that we cannot save ourselves.
Since you have a TV, computer and internet service, you should know it is not only Dominica. Other countries in the world are experiencing their own hardship, be it in different ways.
There is a reason for all things. Those who lack godly enlightenment will not view the situation to be:
The problem is, many have become godless.
Many complain more than they can suggest and can do.
Many do not give God His dues, do not worship, do not pray for themselves nor for others. Some have rejected Him.
Many are self-centered.
Many do not perform acts of love/generosity.
You could add more to the above.
“The problem is, many have become godless.”
Facts, that is beside the point; you have forgotten that God holds back nothing from people” ” when it rains it rain for both the poor and the rich.” However, human obstacles are the worst obstacles to ourselves; (humans).
On television we see poverty in many places on earth, even on the continent of Africa, you feel sorry for what you see, nevertheless, Africa, is the richest continent in the world, think about that! All of the poverty we see in the Middle East, or anywhere else including Dominica, are man made; man created. So, do not use what you see on Television to condone poverty in Dominica.
Skerrit, and the Labor Party are the cause of so much poverty, pain suffering and crimes in Dominica; believe it, or not!
You all cannot go back to DBMC days….because they were productive…you should say we want to try to bring back the Industry like those days
“This is a very serious message, because the resources…and the energies to manage Black Sigatoka, with all the spray teams and all the fertilizer, if we maintain these abandoned fields, island-wide, our energies and efforts will go in vain.”
Even if you chop down all the plantations, including the plants which you imported from France, the experimental plants grown in a greenhouse, which show signs of the virus, that is not going to rid the island of the disease.
Why? The virus is carried by the wind, as long as there are banana plants, on the island of Guadeloupe, Martinique, St. Lucia, Grenada, and St. Vincent with the virus, you cannot escape your fate, because the wind blows the all over the Caribbean spreading the virus, that killed the industry in Jamaica more than thirty years ago. Scientists predict that the banana plant is destine to be eliminated completely from the face of the earth!
Is that the same Ryan Anselm who in an interview with Oberserver media in Antigua on 2 Dec. 2014 boasted that:
– “We can handle the banana competition”
– “Dominica has the preferred fruit, which is of higher quality when compared to others”
-“Within the first and second quarter of 2015 production will increase”
Remember, this is before tropical storm Erika.
Did that increased production materialize and how can one talk about superior quality of non-existing bananas? I think mr. Anselm should resign and be replaced by someone more competent.
All these guys are concerned about doing is controlling all aspects of a poor man’s life. When are these bold faced people going to stop oppressing the struggling farmers? This guy own words has indicated that the banana industry is in decline. He said “We won’t go back to the DBMC days, but there is still money to be made in banana and plantains.” In other words he is admitting that the good old days of farming over and it will never get back to what it used to be. It would have been better if he said that this government is incapable of reviving a once thriving industry. By now all cats and dogs know that weather it be resources deployed to manage Black Sigatoka or the distribution of fertilizer, political affiliation and manipulation always play a dirty role. I hate it when these people talk like they care but really they don’t. Why are there so many empty fields on the first place? Are farmers abandoning this trade after realizing there’s not much in it for them?
Why can’t we come back to the DBMC days? I pray, sir, please tell me.
Do these people have a plan for the future of bananas???
We won’t go back to the glory of the DBMC days you, regrettably!
So what is the real plan!
What is the plan!
What should i expect to come out of this?
What am i coming back to?
Hoping that apparently healthy and recovering plants will be spared, noted and rechecked at later date as they may provide a b.sigatoka resistant cultivar already adapted for Dominica.