Damion Mitchell, Staff ReporterAGRICULTURAL INTERESTS said yesterday that the sector, already devastated by Hurricane Ivan, could be further weakened by fungus affecting plants, if priority is not given to technical research and disease prevention in the current recovery effort.
"As a result of excessive rains and water, for example, peppers, sweet potatoes and tomatoes within the next couple of months are going to develop a lot of fungus," said Dr. Francis Asiedu, head of the Caribbean Agricultural and Research Development Institute (CARDI) in Jamaica.
"There are areas outside of domestic crop loss that need to be investigated," he told a Gleaner Editors' Forum at the company's North Street offices in central Kingston. Dr. Asiedu, who was one of seven agricultural stakeholders at the forum, said research should be treated as the 'pivotal backbone' of the agricultural recovery effort.
Dr. Asiedu noted that the teams currently assessing the damage to the sector have no agricultural scientists as part of their make-up, warning that some areas of importance could be overlooked.
Initial estimates indicate that the damage to agriculture exceeds $6 billion with research facilities accounting for approximately $60 million of this amount.
REPLANTING PROGRAMME
In echoing Dr. Asiedu's concern, Marilyn Headley, the conservator of forests said the Forestry Department, was now issuing more licences to private sector entities to convert fallen trees into lumber before the next two months when fungus could develop. She said the revenues from this exercise would be used to boost the department's $53 million replanting programme to rehabilitate the 700 hectares of forestry destroyed by the hurricane.
Senator Norman Grant, president of the Jamaica Agricultural Society (JAS), said it was disappointing that technical research in agriculture was not made a priority of the Government.
"I don't believe we paid enough attention to research, even in the pre-Ivan period," he said.
However, noting this was an appropriate time to better position the agriculture sector, he said some 'tough and hard decisions' must be made.
"We have to a launch a strategy that would lead to sustainable development... We have to find a way of providing 'soft' loans for our farmers," he said, suggesting that agricultural loans must be available at single digit interest rates for a "prolonged" period.
In the meantime, Alvin Murray, the general manager of the Christiana Potato Growers' Cooperative, is suggesting that in the rebuilding effort, technologies such as hydroponics be used in producing crops.
