JAMAICA-AGRICULTURE: Banana Industry Gets a Break

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Misha Lobban

KINGSTON, Jun 24 1996 (IPS) - Jamaica’s banana farmers are breathing a little easier after hearing the news that scientists have come up with a new variety of the fruit that is resistant to many of the diseases which presently plague the industry.

Dubbed the RG-1 type this variety of the fruit which was developed by researcher Ren Gonsalves is the culmination of some 15 years of work.

“This new variety after years of testing and research is like a dream come true. It is the first variety developed in the world that has shown that it will become a viable export crop for Jamaica.

“This variety will also be used as a strong base for further research into better and more improved varieties so that in the next 10 to 20 years when this triploid succumbs to any new banana disease, there will still be a new variety of banana to replace it,” says Gonsalves.

And according to analysts the breakthrough could not have come at a better time.

The banana industry here is on the decline. The sector has been devastated by alternate bouts of drought and flood rains over the last two years. In 1994, drought, which some farmers described as the worst spell in 40 years destroyed some 916 hectares of bananas in the large farming communities of Portland and St. Mary in the eastern section of the island.

This followed destruction of several tonnes of the fruit by flood rains between January and April of that year.

Increasing production costs, high interest rates on loans to farmers and diseases, have also taken their toll.

Marjorie Stair of Western Banana Company, the organisation responsible for the industry at that end of the island says production costs increased by 308 percent between 1991 and this year, while prices for the fruit on the export market rose by only 152 percent.

“Increase in export prices have not been matching the high increase in production costs which is caused largely by the high cost of packaging for export,” says Stair.

And the fight against diseases, especially the black sigatoka, has pushed up production costs by some 36 percent as additional chemicals had to be used to halt the spread of the disease.

The black sigatoka is a fungus which causes premature ripening of fruits and can eventually prevent the banana plant from producing. Jean Dixon, chief research officer at the state-owned Banana Board describes the disease as “violent and aggressive.” It is caused by an airborne virus and is spread by plant material, water and on hair and skin.

Banana is the second largest agricultural export crop in the island after sugar. In 1995 some 85,223 tonnes of bananas were exported, bringing in some 48 million dollars in foreign exchange earnings.

Agriculturists say the RG-1 variety could solve the problem of high production cost. Yield from this variety averages six to seven hands per bunch, each weighing between 35 and 40 kilogrammes.

Advanced research on the RG-1 is now being carried out in Belgium to confirm its resistance to the various leaf spot diseases to which the other varieties such as the Gros Mitchell, Lacatan, Robusta, and Cavindish have succumbed.

Farmers here should know the results of these tests in August. Then it will be on to further testing and then full scale production.

Gonsalves’ success in the banana industry has encouraged government to begin to seriously look at its research facilities with the aim of making breakthroughs in other areas. Allocation to agricultural research this year totalled some 915,000 dollars, up from 714,000 the previous year.

Bodles, the government’s primary research facility in Old Harbour, some 33 kilometres from Kingston, is to benefit from a 500,000- dollar grant from the World Bank to carry out further research.

Since it was established in 1946, this research centre has made significant advances in the area of animal nutrition and the use of different varieties of agricultural produce such as pepper, corn and cassava.

“We are constantly looking at new varieties of crops for production in order to improve our agricultural production efficiency and export yields,” says Paul Jennings, Director of Research in the Ministry of Agriculture.

“In the rest of the region, farmers have been adopting technologies derived from research for the production of domestic crop but Jamaica is behind in this. It is for this reason why government has been focussing heavily on research and development,” he adds.

Officials at the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) here agree. “An umbrella research institution must be among the highest priorities of government,” runs a report on the effects of Structural Adjustment on the country’s agricultural sector.

The FAO says it will also assist government in its efforts to improve the research facilities at Bodles. According to FAO’s representative here, David Bowen, the project under consideration will seek to improve the technical and managerial skills of extension officers and equip farmers with the necessary knowledge and skills “required to survive and prosper in a market driven economy.”