THE BLACK sigatoka disease continues to affect plantain production, resulting in skyrocketing prices on the market.
And according to Chief Executive Officer of the National Agriculture Research and Extension Institute (NAREI), Dr. Oudho Homenauth, it is now time for famers to take stringent measures.

He said farmers should now ensure proper farm sanitation so as to boost plantain production and reduce high prices
on the market.

Homenauth stressed that chemicals alone cannot correct the situation and other methods will be initiated to help control the disease.

He noted that a farmers’ field school has been set up to demonstrate the correct farming techniques and treatment options, and that with the implementation of this exercise, production in some areas has shown improvement.
He said it has to do with farm sanitation, an activity that is going to be further intensified; right now plots have been set up and NAREI extension staff is working along with farmers in the process.
Homenauth said the programme will be successful only if the farmers take it seriously.
The Black sigatoka disease is said to be the main cause of the exorbitant prices for plantains in Guyana and in several countries around the world.

The black sigatoka is a leaf spot disease affecting mostly plantain and banana plants and is also known as the ‘the black leaf streak’. It was named for its similarities with the yellow sigatoka, another plant disease affecting the species whose name was derived after an outbreak of the disease in the Sigatoka Valley, Fiji, in the Pacific Islands, which reached epidemic proportions between 1912 and 1923.
The first symptoms of black sigatoka are tiny, chlorotic spots that appear on the bottom surface of the third or fourth open leaf.

The spots grow into thin brown streaks that are limited by leaf veins. The colour of the streaks becomes darker, sometimes with a purple tinge, and visible on the top surface.

When the disease severity is high, large areas of the leaf may become blackened and water-soaked.
If left unchecked, black sigatoka will progress through the plant’s leaf surface area, greatly reducing photosynthetic capability and this leads to reduced yield.