THE BANANA industry is much more than a lifeline for thousands of Jamaicans and scores of mainly rural communities. More than 85,000 farmers grow bananas on almost 10,000 hectares of land in several parishes. The industry earned for the country last year more than £15 million and is a constant cash flow for thousands in barely marginal existence.
It is for these reasons that the discovery of the deadly Moko disease in St. James is sending shivers through banana country. Moko is a devastating disease of banana and plantain. It also affects red ginger, heliconia, tomato, dasheen and coco.
First reported in November last year, confirmation by the United Kingdom-based Cabi Bioscience Centre was received this year on March 2. That confirmation by Cabi Bioscience was received four weeks after samples were collected for laboratory analyses on January 29, when the bacteria isolated, ralstonia solanacearum, the moko disease pathogen, was diagnosed.
The Ministry of Agriculture has moved quickly to contain and eradicate the disease. It is mobilising its resources to inspect fields each week for symptoms and to educate farmers on how to deal with any discovery of Moko. The Ministry says all known and suspected diseased fields will be destroyed according to a strict protocol. This, it is promising, will be done by a special authorised Moko Eradication Team. The Agriculture Minister, Roger Clarke, says approximately $4 million has already been identified for the eradication programme, which will begin this week.
Mr. Clarke is also promising help to those farmers who will see their fields destroyed, as part of a national effort to protect the two-billion-dollar a year industry. Already, George's Valley, Silver Grove, Vaughnsfield, Phoenix Road, Montpelier in St. James and all areas within a 10-mile radius of each district have been designated as infected zones.
We are heartened by the initial response of the Minister of Agriculture and his technical team who have organised a National Plan of Action to be implemented through a technical committee. This committee comprises representatives of the Banana Board Research Department, RADA, Plant Quarantine Inspection Division, the Jamaica Agricultural Society and the Banana Export Sector.
We exhort the JAS and the banana farmers to be diligent in ensuring that they cooperate with the strategy of containing and eradicating the disease. But they should be equally vigilant in exposing any slackening off of the national effort in that regard.
The experience of Moko disease elsewhere demonstrates that where all the stakeholders do their part the threat is contained and viability maintained.
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