Ministry introduces new monitoring system for pest
published: Wednesday | February 9, 2005

By Dionne Rose, Staff Reporter

THE MINISTRY of Agriculture, in collaboration with the Agricultural Support Services Project (ASSP), on Wednesday launched a $3.8 million National Plant Health Surveillance and Pest Response System, which will act as a form of surveillance for pest and disease incidence in the island.

Roger Clarke, minister of agriculture, in officially launching the project at the Eden Gardens Resort on Lady Musgrave Road in St. Andrew, said the system would coordinate the activities among the relevant agencies involved in plant health surveillance including the ministries of commerce, science and technology, agriculture and health.

The system, he said, would also identify potential threats to plant health, facilitate information sharing on sampling, forecasting, pest identification, pest risk analyses, crop loss assessment and the training of end-users.

MAXIMISE RESOURCES

Outlining the advantages of the system, Minister Clarke said, "With this system in place, we will be able to maximise the use of our limited resources, eliminate overlapping and unite our efforts around the common goal of protecting and maintaining plant health."

Explaining how the system will work, the agriculture minister said that it would be underpinned by the development of a database, linking the plant health surveillance and pest response functions of the plant quarantine and produce inspection and research and development divisions as well as the ministry's extension service provider, the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA).

Hersehll Brown, project director at the ASSP said, "This is a collaborative early warning system for identifying and responding to threats or actual incursion of dangerous plant pests, in either a routine or emergency mode."

Mr. Brown said that the project, which has three components, started last year with the employment of Dr. Winston Small, plant health system consultant from Barbados who started work on the system in July.

Meanwhile, this week officers attached to Bodles, RADA and the Plant Quarantine Division at the Ministry of Agriculture will be trained in how to use the system.