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St. Lucia's Agriculture Ministry battling new threat to bananas

Posted by CaribShout on February 8, 2010 at 7:13pm

Farmers could do without this new threat to their crop. As if local farmers don’t have enough to worry about now they have ‘Black sigatoka’ on their minds. The fungal type of leaf spot disease was confirmed in the neighbouring isle of St Vincent late last year and might now be detected in St Lucia. Although the official results have not come back from overseas the suspected affected areas are Forrestierre and Combat. Black sigatoka can cut a tree’s fruit production by half. The fungal disease causes dark leaf spots that eventually enlarge and coalesce, causing much of the leaf area to turn yellow and brown. The aggressive disease spreads easily and quickly and has many farmers locally and regionally worried. Eden Compton, Director of Agricultural Services, spoke to the STAR on Thursday about the disease that could be a serious blow to the local banana output. “Since it is a fungus and it produces spores it can be spread by the wind, by water, by insects and affects mostly bananas and plaintain,” he told us. “Of concern is the spread by human beings from infected areas to non-infected ones.” Compton was especially concerned about visitors to the island who go on forest trails as one of the areas affected receives many tours. The director says that the ministry has been on alert since the confirmation of the disease in St Vincent and had restrictions on the importation of plant material from that island and other countries infected. “We also undertook an islandwide detection survey and this is how we identified the two areas. Survelliance activities are always ongoing on plantations,” said Compton. He added that a national task force was activated and they met in January to work on a budget for eradication of the disease. There were also discussions with the prime minister who agreed to make monies available for the process. The ministry of tourism was also informed that the suspected areas are now off limits to tourists. Compton says more land surveys will be done and the ministry will decide whether to continue with an eradication program or a control program. He admitted that the effects of the spread of this disease could be devastating. “It could be a big blow. For one, there will be an added production cost because this disease is very difficult to control. Secondly, there is the possibility that certain countries where we export may refuse our products.” The director says St Lucia has been receiving help from the Agricultural Research Centre for International Development and samples of the suspected plants have been sent to a lab in France. “We are awaiting conclusive confirmation. Of course we have spoken to the farmers in the affected areas about procedures,” said Compton. The director urged farmers not to panic and said they will continue to disseminate information.
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