THE hinterland community of St. Ignatius, Region Nine is home to one of NAREI’s Stations. The facility, situated on a large expanse of land, is divided into two: Extension Services and the Plant Nursery. This week NAREI in Focus will look at the Plant Nursery, which services approximately 2,000 farmers and provides employment for seven persons.

The Plant Nursery provides quality planting materials to farmers of St. Ignatius and neighbouring communities including Moco Moco, Kuru and Nappi. The different crops available are citrus, breadfruit, cashew nuts and coconuts.

According to Aaron Ramroop, NAREI’s Hinterland Coordinator, “We are currently expanding our product line to increase the number of nutritional crops available in the Region. Whilst the aim is to ensure food security through diversification we want to bring down the cost of production to the farmers- starting from the cost of seedlings.”

The Nursery is currently engaged in two major projects: Cashew nut (10 varieties) and Breadfruit (imported variety) germplasm. Staffers travel about five minutes during dry weather from St. Ignatius to Kuru, where this germplasm is located.

Another crop NAREI is looking to introduce on a large scale (in due time) in the district is coconut. Earlier this year, the Institute took a small quantity of 18-month coconuts to the Region. The response from farmers has signalled the need for the establishment of a coconut plot.

“To transport planting materials to St. Ignatius is costly. So we are trying to have varying crops available at the Nursery. So while the cost for the imported variety of Breadfruit is $2,000 now we are hoping to reduce this cost with the availability of planting material in the Region,” Ramroop said.

He related that the citrus orchard has been satisfying the needs of farmers. One of the main crops is the rough lemon.