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I think we are finally seeing sense and takling some fundamental issues. I guess we have to hit rock bottokm before we embrace change. That is the biggest Jakan flaw:
A farmer's plea for soil health
JEAN LOWRIE-CHIN
Monday, May 19, 2008
Mark Brooks is convinced that agriculture in Jamaica has been on a slide because of a major soil health issue. "Jamaica's problem is low yield and unreliability of supply," he believes. "Farmers everywhere are suffering because we have been overcropping and not rotating our planting." The seasoned agriculturalist showed me photographs of under-ripe tomatoes dropping to the ground at Peter Alvaranga's farm in St Elizabeth. Then he followed with "crippled" carrots and pumpkin vines with yellow, shrivelled leaves.
"From the 60s, farmers were noticing that their plants were not thriving as they used to," said Brooks. From 1978, he had managed Richmond Estate in St Ann. However, in the early 90s, an attempt at automation sounded his farm's death knell: his super-efficient new machines spread the pathogens everywhere and sank him. It was then that he began important research that eventually sent him into the business of soil fumigation. "But this problem is bigger than anything I have to offer," he says. "Our government should draw on the expertise of CABI, a Commonwealth organisation - they have a lot of resources." I visited www.cabi.org and found a wealth of information on soil pathogens and recommended treatments.
It turns out that the fertilisers that our farmers have been using in larger amounts, as their yields have got smaller, are "like gasoline on a fire". Ammonia-based nitrogen in our fertilisers increases the disastrous effects of the pathogenic Fusarium fungus. "We need more than soil fumigation," believes Mark. "We need sustained, long-term thinking at the government level."
Mark praises the work of Professor Phyllis Coates-Beckford of the UWI Department of Life Sciences, and is hoping that the authorities will use her solid research to inform their planning. He shared with me a paper she co-authored with Marlene Pereira entitled, "Soil Solarisation for the control of a slow decline of Breadfruit Trees". If you have been puzzled by the unexplained death of your tree preceded by such symptoms as "yellowing of leaves, reduced leaf size, premature leaf fall and dieback of branches", Professor Coates-Beckford writes that "nematodes and/or root rot pathogen may be involved in the disease".
The professor and Ms Pereira explain that "soil solarisation is the use of the sun's rays to heat to very high temperatures irrigated soils covered with transparent polythene sheeting" to control these diseases. So here we have our sunshine, free and abundant, which can be used to sterilise and enrich our soil, and farmers, unaware of this procedure, are throwing good money after bad, piling on fertilisers that are aggravating their problems.
I related a news report earlier last week to Mark: a lady adding up the cost of all she is putting into her farm and the penurious returns. "Exactly," said Mark, "she is using her already depleted funds to bring herself even more loss. There is a lot of frustration among the farmers I know."
Mark also blames the arrogance of certain authority figures, one of whom refused to heed the urgings of the brilliant bio-technologist, Dr Sylvia Mitchell. Additionally, he showed me a 1972 crop review paper which stated, in response to a suggestion for overseas help, "we have no peers and need no advice from outside experts".
"Imagine," says Mark, "practically next door to us, there is Florida, where they rotate sugar cane with rice and vegetables, flood fallow or fumigate the areas to restore soil health." He said that the varieties of cane grown in Jamaica were selected because of high resistance to smut, but unfortunately are susceptible to the serious soil-borne diseases. He showed me photographs of the rotten roots of canes. In the soil around it, we saw white thread-like bits which he identified as fungi.
Our ginger crop has been one of the hardest hit by soil-borne diseases. "In 1953, Jamaica exported 2,000 tonnes of ginger," he said. "In 2000 we exported only 1.5 tonnes!" He explained that we should stop bashing young people about leaving the land and moving to the city. "We can't blame them," he said. "They are seeing the difficulties of their parents and grandparents." He observed that with the promise by government of a farming subsidy of $25,000 for every acre, he hoped that the first thing authorities would do would be to check soil health.
Mark is looking to RADA to educate farmers about the proper procedures for improving soil health. He mentioned that there are enthusiastic ministry representatives who he hopes will lead this charge. Throughout the length and breadth of the beautiful parish of St Elizabeth, "the breadbasket of Jamaica", plants fail to thrive. Proud old trees are now fallen like wounded giants - Mark showed us heartbreaking photographs of dead guango, pimento and casuarina (willow) trees.
Landscapers, who may have been blamed for the poor appearance of public grounds or sports fields, should know that these areas are also subject to disease. Householders should investigate those persistent patches of yellow on their lawn - they may very well be due to soil pathogens that could become even more virulent with the application of the wrong fertiliser and over-watering.
In addition to the use of solarisation, the recommended fumigant is metam sodium, which is particularly effective.
"Jamaica's problem is not economy of scale, but economy of yield," says Mark. He referred to a meeting last month at the Bodles Research Station (where Ren Gonsalves conducted his internationally acclaimed banana breeding programme). "On April 14 various stakeholders met and arrived at the consensus that we indeed had a serious problem with soil health. We are pleased that Minister Tufton has agreed to appoint a committee to tackle the problem," Mark comments.
Immediate collaboration with our scientists and international organisations are needed to restore faith and reward the diligence of our faithful farmers. If we are to "eat what we grow, and grow what we eat" we cannot tackle this problem too soon.
A farmer's plea for soil health
JEAN LOWRIE-CHIN
Monday, May 19, 2008
Mark Brooks is convinced that agriculture in Jamaica has been on a slide because of a major soil health issue. "Jamaica's problem is low yield and unreliability of supply," he believes. "Farmers everywhere are suffering because we have been overcropping and not rotating our planting." The seasoned agriculturalist showed me photographs of under-ripe tomatoes dropping to the ground at Peter Alvaranga's farm in St Elizabeth. Then he followed with "crippled" carrots and pumpkin vines with yellow, shrivelled leaves.
"From the 60s, farmers were noticing that their plants were not thriving as they used to," said Brooks. From 1978, he had managed Richmond Estate in St Ann. However, in the early 90s, an attempt at automation sounded his farm's death knell: his super-efficient new machines spread the pathogens everywhere and sank him. It was then that he began important research that eventually sent him into the business of soil fumigation. "But this problem is bigger than anything I have to offer," he says. "Our government should draw on the expertise of CABI, a Commonwealth organisation - they have a lot of resources." I visited www.cabi.org and found a wealth of information on soil pathogens and recommended treatments.
It turns out that the fertilisers that our farmers have been using in larger amounts, as their yields have got smaller, are "like gasoline on a fire". Ammonia-based nitrogen in our fertilisers increases the disastrous effects of the pathogenic Fusarium fungus. "We need more than soil fumigation," believes Mark. "We need sustained, long-term thinking at the government level."
Mark praises the work of Professor Phyllis Coates-Beckford of the UWI Department of Life Sciences, and is hoping that the authorities will use her solid research to inform their planning. He shared with me a paper she co-authored with Marlene Pereira entitled, "Soil Solarisation for the control of a slow decline of Breadfruit Trees". If you have been puzzled by the unexplained death of your tree preceded by such symptoms as "yellowing of leaves, reduced leaf size, premature leaf fall and dieback of branches", Professor Coates-Beckford writes that "nematodes and/or root rot pathogen may be involved in the disease".
The professor and Ms Pereira explain that "soil solarisation is the use of the sun's rays to heat to very high temperatures irrigated soils covered with transparent polythene sheeting" to control these diseases. So here we have our sunshine, free and abundant, which can be used to sterilise and enrich our soil, and farmers, unaware of this procedure, are throwing good money after bad, piling on fertilisers that are aggravating their problems.
I related a news report earlier last week to Mark: a lady adding up the cost of all she is putting into her farm and the penurious returns. "Exactly," said Mark, "she is using her already depleted funds to bring herself even more loss. There is a lot of frustration among the farmers I know."
Mark also blames the arrogance of certain authority figures, one of whom refused to heed the urgings of the brilliant bio-technologist, Dr Sylvia Mitchell. Additionally, he showed me a 1972 crop review paper which stated, in response to a suggestion for overseas help, "we have no peers and need no advice from outside experts".
"Imagine," says Mark, "practically next door to us, there is Florida, where they rotate sugar cane with rice and vegetables, flood fallow or fumigate the areas to restore soil health." He said that the varieties of cane grown in Jamaica were selected because of high resistance to smut, but unfortunately are susceptible to the serious soil-borne diseases. He showed me photographs of the rotten roots of canes. In the soil around it, we saw white thread-like bits which he identified as fungi.
Our ginger crop has been one of the hardest hit by soil-borne diseases. "In 1953, Jamaica exported 2,000 tonnes of ginger," he said. "In 2000 we exported only 1.5 tonnes!" He explained that we should stop bashing young people about leaving the land and moving to the city. "We can't blame them," he said. "They are seeing the difficulties of their parents and grandparents." He observed that with the promise by government of a farming subsidy of $25,000 for every acre, he hoped that the first thing authorities would do would be to check soil health.
Mark is looking to RADA to educate farmers about the proper procedures for improving soil health. He mentioned that there are enthusiastic ministry representatives who he hopes will lead this charge. Throughout the length and breadth of the beautiful parish of St Elizabeth, "the breadbasket of Jamaica", plants fail to thrive. Proud old trees are now fallen like wounded giants - Mark showed us heartbreaking photographs of dead guango, pimento and casuarina (willow) trees.
Landscapers, who may have been blamed for the poor appearance of public grounds or sports fields, should know that these areas are also subject to disease. Householders should investigate those persistent patches of yellow on their lawn - they may very well be due to soil pathogens that could become even more virulent with the application of the wrong fertiliser and over-watering.
In addition to the use of solarisation, the recommended fumigant is metam sodium, which is particularly effective.
"Jamaica's problem is not economy of scale, but economy of yield," says Mark. He referred to a meeting last month at the Bodles Research Station (where Ren Gonsalves conducted his internationally acclaimed banana breeding programme). "On April 14 various stakeholders met and arrived at the consensus that we indeed had a serious problem with soil health. We are pleased that Minister Tufton has agreed to appoint a committee to tackle the problem," Mark comments.
Immediate collaboration with our scientists and international organisations are needed to restore faith and reward the diligence of our faithful farmers. If we are to "eat what we grow, and grow what we eat" we cannot tackle this problem too soon.