WESTERN BUREAU:
A PARLEY to discuss the efforts toward the revitalisation of the citrus industry after damage by the citrus tristeza virus (CTV) took place this week at the Denbigh 4-H Training Centre in Clarendon. Representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture's Citrus Replanting Project met with farmers in what is the first of an islandwide programme designed to sensitise farmers about the need to replant after CTV partially wiped out the industry. In giving an overview of the Project, Co-ordinator of the Citrus Replanting Project, Dr. Florence Young told the gathering that included Dr. James Ferguson, Citrus Production Specialist at the University of Florida in the United States, that the major goal of the programme was to rehabilitate the citrus industry by replanting 2,843 hectares of fruit over a five-year period.
Dr. Young added that the replanting project had started in January 2001, and is supported by a loan from the Caribbean Development Bank to provide technical and credit support to citrus farmers.
She explained further that farmers could access credit through the Development Bank of Jamaica and their local People's Co-operative Banks at a nine per cent rate of interest, to carry out the replanting process.
Extension services, she said, were available through the Citrus Growers Association; the Ministry's Research and Development Division and the Jamaica Citrus Protection Agency (JCPA), which was responsible for ensuring that seedlings sold to farmers by various nurseries, were certified.
Figures from the Ministry of Agriculture and the Citrus Growers Association indicate that the local citrus industry is worth $2.8 billion with approximately 10,000 farmers and a total employment of 18,500 persons.
The reports also indicate that the value of exports declined from US$4.6 million in 1999 to US$3.9 million in 2000 because of the citrus tristeza virus and severe drought conditions.
Although relatively small in trade and production volumes, the citrus industry plays an important role in the Jamaican economy with the majority of crop being used domestically as fresh fruit or processed juice, and around 11 per cent of production exported to the United States, Canada and Barbados.
