A COMPREHENSIVE display and demonstration of matters relating to the Citrus Tristeza Virus is to be put on at Denbigh Show 2000, by the Citrus Growers' Association, which is set to return to the annual show after a two-year absence.
Chairman of the Association, Mr. C.V. Bent, confirmed the planned participation of the organisation in the August 5-7 show, earlier this week. He said the group would be supported by the Bog Walk-based Jamaica Citrus Growers Limited factory, the processing arm of the Association, which formerly took on a mainstream role in the Denbigh Show.
The onslaught of the Citrus Tristeza Virus in recent years has forced the industry to destroy large numbers of citrus trees islandwide and seek to replace these with resistant strains of the same crops, in an effort to counter the phenomenon.
From its display area at Denbigh, Mr. Bent said the Growers' Association will be showing the linkages involved in the rehabilitation process. "The replanting programme is uppermost in our minds, in order to overcome the problems of the Citrus Tristeza Virus and other viruses," he said. "The whole theme of the display is to show what will happen in our replanting programme as it is being conducted.
Disease-free plants
"We will be showing the methods of sowing disease-free seeds to produce the seedlings upon which to put disease-free bud wood, in order to produce disease-free and resistant plants," added Mr. Bent.
He said the Association intended to show the setting of a citrus grove, as well as the process from the fruit coming to maturity to the production of concentrate and, finally, the juice for consumption.
Hand-out literature is also to be made available, dealing with matters like the choices of root stock and the varieties of citrus strains which farmers are being advised to plant, along with general advice on proper cultural practices in citrus cultivation.
The Citrus Growers' Association, made up of registered citrus growers islandwide, was formed in 1948. It operates on a semi-co-operative basis with a network of 68 branches across the island. Like some of the other major agricultural commodity groupings locally, the Association owns facilities from the primary stages of cultivation to the final stages of processing for consumer use.
