Ministry looks at revamp of citrus industry

CAROL MATROO

THE Agriculture, Land and Fisheries Ministry is attempting to revamp this country’s citrus industry by importing planting material resistant to the citrus greening disease, which destroys citrus plants.

Minister Clarence Rambharat told Newsday at the opening ceremony of the Biotechnology Laboratory Research Division at Farm Road, St Joseph, last week Tuesday: “What we have been finding over the years is, because of the movement of material across the borders illegally, we are always at the risk of the introduction of new pests and diseases into the country.

“The one we are talking a lot about now is citrus greening, which decimated the industry in Florida. We had been on the lookout for it. We are here on the same compound as the St Augustine nurseries, where citrus greening was detected.” He said with the opening of the lab the ministry would have the capacity to do the technical work so farmers could rely on it to do diagnoses, and also give some advice on what to do.

“With the christophene for example, they have had a problem with a particular type of fungus and they have been working with our research division to deal with it. This lab, which was conceived about ten years ago, gives another level of research and lab ability to be able to avoid having to send samples abroad, and to be able to do some research on things that are submitted here,” he said.

The minister said the lab must not be for research only and should not just be a vanity project. It must do things in service of the farmers. A most important one was importing planting material such as coconut. The minister said the ministry engaged a consultant from India several years ago who recommended that to regrow the coconut industry in Trinidad, it needed to use the appropriate varieties, a variety that was suitable for coconut water and another that was suitable for processing.

“I have seen significant interest in the coconut-water segment and in fact we cannot supply the demands of the country, and I hear all the time that there is a shortage of grated coconut. There is a factory in Icacos that would like to get more coconuts. “We think that importing the plants would give us a good head start. We have invested a lot of time and research to be able to import the plants and we are on the verge of having plants come to Trinidad from Mexico,” he said.In rebuilding the citrus industry, Rambharat said the ministry was working with two institutions, one in Florida and one in California, for plants. He said once that was arranged it would be about a year before new planting material could be distributed to the farmers. On the buffalypso, the minister said they were being affected by the presence of the brucellosis disease in the country. “It is very rare for it to pass to human beings, but having worked in Caroni Ltd in the livestock area, from time to time we had workers who had a high fever after being exposed to the animals, and those are rare cases.

Brucellosis does not affect the quality of the meat. The issue with brucellosis is, if we have to export the meat it has to be brucellosis-free. We have to help the farmers build their own herd of buffalypso, because the meat is high-quality. A mature animal yields a significant amount of meat and if we have to build the sector around buffalypso we have to provide brucellosis-free animals.”