FARMERS of the upper and lower Pomeroon River are calling for the importation of the insecticide, monocrotophos, to save the coconut industry from being decimated by the red palm mite.According to reports, scores of farmers met yesterday with Region Two Chairman, Mr. Devanand Ramdatt at Charity and raised with him their concern about the return of the disease due to the consistent rainfall, and the serious threat it poses to the coconut industry in their respective communities.
One farmer, Mr. Wendell Daniels, who has some 45 acres of land under coconut cultivation, said the Red Palm Mite, known locally as the Red Palm Disease, has already attacked thousands of coconut groves in the area, including his.
Daniels said if something is not done now to either control or eliminate the plague altogether, that pretty soon there will be a severe shortage of both Coconut water and dried nuts in the Pomeroon.
He said the mites operate by attacking the trunk of the tree, thereby causing the young coconuts and bearings to fall off of it.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Agriculture, through the National Agricultural Research and Extension Institute (NAREI) and the Region 2 Department of Agriculture recently held two seminars in the Lower Pomeroon River to give farmers technical advice on how to control and eliminate the disease. However, according to Mr. Daniels, after NAREI’s intervention, the disease eased down somewhat, but has since reemerged with recent heavy rains.
Daniels said that with the Pomeroon being the biggest producer of coconut water and dried coconuts in the country, the demand for coconuts is very high, and the commodity fetches a good price. (Rajendra Prabhulall)