SOME 20 farmers are being trained to operate mini laboratories in Seven Rivers, St. James, the Rio Grande Valley in Portland, Bog Walk in St. Catherine, Mount Airy in St. Andrew, and Cave Valley in St. Ann, under the rural adaptive technology transfer programme, being undertaken by the Coffee Industry Board (CIB) in the fight against the coffee berry borer.
At the end of the study, the participants will assist in the training of other coffee farmers, in the use of the parasitoid Eephalonomia Staphanoderis. The parasitoid is being used in the biological control method to rid the island of the coffee berry borer insect which has been wreaking havoc on the industry since 1978.
The project is being carried out by the Caribbean Research and Development Institute (CARDI), on behalf of the Coffee Industry Board (CIB). The parasitoids are expected to attack and kill the coffee berry borer. Test results contained in the first annual report submitted by CARDI, showed that the parasitoid will not attack and destroy anything else, but the coffee berry borer.
The programme comes against the background of the Government having to deal with high infestation rates at considerable cost. At present, there is an infestation rate of between 14 and 18 per cent.
Last year, it cost the CIB over $7 million for chemical spraying in the lowland coffee growing areas alone.
Project Officer at the CIB, Alford Williams, said the project which started last year would take another two to three years to be completed. He pointed out that the berry borer had a negative impact on the quality of coffee being produced, adding that studies being conducted in the Caribbean were indicating success levels of between 50 and 80 per cent, with Jamaica achieving the highest percentage in sample tests done in areas of the country where over 45,000 of the parasitoids had been released.
Mr. Williams said the main objective of the study was to find alternative methods to chemical spraying, which could have adverse effects on the island's coffee industry as well as the environment. Farmers were also reminded to concentrate on stripping the trees, and removing those ripe berries which had fallen to the ground, at the end of the current season, to avoid infestation of the new crop.
