Green: Now is the time for coconut industry expansion
Published:Tuesday | March 5, 2024 | 12:10 AMAsha Wilks/Gleaner Writer
Jamaica has significantly reduced the spread of the lethal yellowing disease in coconuts ( Cocos nucifera) across the island, according to Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining Floyd Green.
Speaking yesterday during the opening ceremony of a five-day regional coconut workshop titled ‘Sustainable and Resilient Coconut Production within a Changing Climate’, Green announced that the threat had been minimised by a whopping 70 per cent.
In the 1980s, Jamaica’s coconut industry was ravaged by the disease which resulted in the deaths of more than seven million coconut plants, and causing a major decline in the amount of land used for coconut cultivation.
Green said this successful reduction was a direct result of the work conducted by organisations like the Coconut Industry Board (CIB) whose research was directed at mitigating the disease.
He also highlighted an increase in the yield of the varieties of coconut, which were adapting well to the changing climate conditions.
However, Green said more work had to be done in the industry as greater partnership was needed.
“We will be facilitating technical sessions to look at [the] establishment of coconut seed gardens, hybridisation techniques, practices and processes, their coconut field management and climate-smart production [and] practices, and processing for value addition and ecotourism. The outcome is to ensure that our micro, small and medium enterprises and our institutions across Jamaica and the region will be thoroughly equipped,” he said.
Speaking on expansion of the sector, Green said “now is the time” to execute the necessary works that would help to accomplish this.
“I do find that oftentimes we are too timid in our expansion targets. The work that we’re doing now, where we are now, the size of the market now means that we have to have a rapid acceleration of plants over the next five years. Let us use the learnings, let us use the methodology and let us expand what we’re doing around our coconut sector. This is a major priority for the Government,” Green said.
The regional workshop, being hosted by the CIB and supported by the International Trade Centre (ITC) and the Caribbean Agricultural Research Development Institute (CARDI), brings together various industry stakeholders, including input suppliers, farmers, agro-processors and those in research and development who will engage in discussions surrounding good practices and areas available for investment.
In the coming days, the workshop will focus on the establishment of coconut seed gardens, the selection of quality coconut mother palms, the harvesting of pollen from coconut mother palms, hybridisation techniques, practices and processes, the management of fertilised seed nuts, harvesting and placement in coconut nurseries, coconut nursery establishment, grow out, management and monitoring of hybrid coconut seedlings and coconut field management and production practices.
INFLUENCE OF CLIMATE CHANGE
Green said it was important to take into account the regional climate realities that affect agriculture on a whole, as climate change has resulted in longer droughts and more intense, short periods of rainfall which from time to time lead to flooding.
The Alliances for Coconut Industry Development, Expansion, and Enhanced Support for the Caribbean (ACIDES) project, which is funded through the European Union (EU), started in 2014 and ended its first phase in 2018.
The following year, phase two commenced, enabling the project to continue the work in developing the region’s coconut industry. Its objectives include to improve decision-making and regional cooperation; enhance sustainability and productivity; improve market and product development; and risk management and disaster mitigation.
The project is expected to conclude within the year.
In welcoming the project’s targets, Green noted that “the coconut is distinctively Caribbean and is extremely versatile”, and that the ministry’s FACE initiative, which refers to the strategic pillars of food security, agri-business development, climate-smart technologies and export expansion, was aligned with the region’s objective through its Vision 25 x 2025, an initiative aimed at reducing the region’s food import bill by 25 per cent by year 2025.
Results from the project so far include the establishment and re-rehabilitation of 75 nurseries across all 12 project countries, boosting the industry’s capacity to approximately 300,000-400,000 seed nuts per year. More than 1,000 farmers have been serviced by these nurseries which were mostly established through the assistance of CARDI.
Additionally, 105 lead farmers were equipped with improved climate-smart production capacities and income from coconuts and associated crops. Over 20,000 intercropping seedlings such as hot peppers, plantain and broccoli were also distributed to farmers.
For his part, Rodriguez Ruiz Aniceto, head of cooperation of the EU delegation in Jamaica, said that because coconuts were an integral part of the Caribbean’s culture with a growing international demand for coconut products, the EU saw it fit to continue its support of over 10 years to collaborate with local partners to ensure that the industry reaps all the economic benefits.
So far, the EU has allocated €6 million throughout the region to ensure a sustainable industry, he said, noting that the industry continued to face various challenges such as high costs of inputs, climate change, limited levels of production and a lack of financing.
“As we approach the end of the programme, that is intended to finish in April this year, we are really very pleased to see the achievements already made in strengthening [of] coconut value chains, business support for organisations and farmers’ competitiveness in particular the partnership developed with CARDI and the CIB of Jamaica,” he said.