Moontown

PEAS AND RICE; MACARONI PIE

TURKEY SOUP; COU COU

PUDDING AND SOUSE; BAKED CHICKEN

BAKED PORK; FRIED DOLPHIN

LAMB STEW; FISH GRAVY

STEAMED VEGETABLES; TOSSED SALAD; COLE SLAW

Minister of Agriculture Hilson Baptiste has welcomed news of efforts to promote competitive and sustainable agriculture in the Americas, geared towards strengthening trade, rural development with a territorial approach, agricultural health and food safety, and respect for the environment, as priority areas, moving forward under the leadership of newly elected director general of the Inter-American Institute for Co-operation on Agriculture (IICA), Víctor M. Villalobos.

Minister Bapstiste’s comments came shortly after the swearing-in ceremony, of Villalobos, as the director-general, at IICA’s Headquarters in Coronado.

“Intra –Regional trade is one of the areas that Antigua and Barbuda is pushing. At least four countries within the region that have indicated their interest to enter into trading agreements with us so far, are St.Lucia, Dominica, Trinidad & Tobago and Guyana,” Baptiste said.

The minister added that, the country is looking at new ways to boost agricultural production and, to this end, several options with regards, to greenhouse are mulching technology are being explored.
Baptiste said Antigua and Barbuda is aggressively marketing onions across the countries, while technical officers have gone on fact finding mission.

To this end, onion production in Antigua is at a sustainable level, of approximately eight million pounds annually. The minister also said the intention is to boost production by another 40,000 pounds –per acre, per annum using technology.

On Monday, during a press conference, at the Cultural Institute of Mexico in Costa Rica, Villalobos outlined priorities, and pledged his commitment to a permanent, open process of accountability with the international community onward from Friday, after he would have been sworn in.

He said that “agriculture is once again attracting attention in the international scenario for two basic reasons: agriculture’s links with the environment and the search for better ways to supply the world with food.”

“As a productive continent, a depository of genetic resources and a producer of food, the Americas is undoubtedly called upon to guarantee food security for humankind,” the new director-general told the media representatives present. (Antigua Sun)

-see bleak future for industry

Story and photographs by Alva Solomon

A Black Sigatoka infection is threatening the local banana and plantain industries and farmers in the Tuschen area are already counting their losses as the disease has destroyed several acres of plantain trees.

Plantain stalks that fell to the ground on this farm at Tuschen after they became affected with the Black Sigatoka disease.

Stabroek News visited farms aback the Tuschen Housing Scheme on Thursday, where several farmers explained the impact the disease has had on a vast expanse of plantain farms.

According to the farmers in the area, many of whom cultivate plantains, the disease was first observed on their farms late 2008 but at the time many of them could not determine what was causing their plants to die. They said that they were referring to the disease as “the dry leaf disease,” but it was only after they were provided with technical information by persons within the agriculture sector, whom they chose not to name, that they were informed about the source of their troubles.

The farmers, who spoke to Stabroek News yesterday, also wanted their names to be withheld for fear of victimisation. They are of the opinion that the plantain industry will soon be a thing of the past. According to them, although they have invested a tremendous amount of time and money on their farms over the years, they are not reaping the benefits because of the disease.

The characteristics of the yeast disease, Black Sigatoka, are the leaves of the plantain tree, as in this photo, displaying a yellow colour before it eventually becomes dry.

One farmer explained that there are several stages which he has to follow when farming and these include weeding the land, placing the grass in heaps, and burning before actually planting the plantain stalks into the earth. This entire process, he stated, costs over $20,000 per an acre.

At the Rosanante Co-op Society farmlands, several acres of plantain trees lay on the ground while some which were only recently infected with the disease stood on their stalks.

The plantain trees on one person’s farm were at nine-months yesterday and, according to the farmer, he lost the entire crop. He took Stabroek News through his entire field of plantain trees, many of which lay on the ground.

He recalled that some two years ago, he observed that the colour of the leaves on his plantain trees began to change from green to a “yellowish” colour. He said he started to cut off the affected leaves but he soon observed that after the plants reached a mature stage, between eight and nine months, their leaves would “dry–up” and the plant stalk would  eventually “bend in half,” even with small bunches of plantain attached.

He said that after a while he observed that the plants would eventually fall to the ground and, according to him, this existed on over five acres of his first crop. He said that he continued to plant the staple plant on another section of his farm covering more than five acres and he observed that that crop also suffered at the hands of the disease. He said that he soon concluded that he was going to lose the entire crop as a result. He said after he became aware of Black Sigatoka, he spent huge sums of money on chemicals to attack the plant disease; the main chemical being Bellis. But, according to him, the chemical had no great impact on his plants.

Farmers within the farm society have begun to diversify their crops, with one farmer noting that he has rooted out several acres of affected plantain trees and replaced them with cassava plants. He said that he knows for sure he will benefit from that crop, since no disease affecting that plant is known to be on these shores as yet.

He and the other farmers also noted that many persons who depend on farming for their livelihood were driven from the area because of the disease. They also said that agriculture officers have visited the area to assess the existence of the disease on their farms.

Some farmers sell their produce in the Parika/Tuschen area while a few market their crops to wholesale buyers who travel to the city to sell.

Proactive

PNCR-1G parliamentarian Mervyn Williams, who has been following the issue, told Stabroek News recently that the Ministry of Agriculture needs to be more proactive in its response to the plant infection. He said that the authorities should examine the needs of the plantain industry, address those and provide additional technical and financial support to the farmers concerned.

Stabroek News understands that the disease has been affecting farms at several areas across the country, including farms at Parika, Hog Island and other Essequibo Islands, including Hamburg Island, where the disease is said to be prevalent. This newspaper also understands that aspects of the yeast disease were also observed in the Waini area in Region One sometime in 2005.

The Ministry, in a notice published in Monday’s issue of the Stabroek News, stated that extension officers have been deployed  to the administrative regions across the country and a unit has since been set up to focus on the Black Sigatoka disease. The disease was named for its similarities to the Yellow Sigatoka (another plant disease affecting the Musa specie (plantain and banana)) whose name was derived from the Sigatoka Valley in Fiji Islands in the Pacific after an outbreak of the disease reached endemic proportions between 1912 and 1923.

The Ministry hotline numbers remain open to the public and farmers concerned can contact the Musa Disease Management Unit (MDMU) on telephone numbers 220-2249 or 220-2842. (Stabroek News)

OAKLAND, California (AP):More than 7,000 nurses in the United States have volunteered to go to Haiti to help injured survivors of the devastating earthquake.National Nurses United, a national union, says nurses nationwide have answered its appeal to travel to the island country. Spokesman Charles Idelson said Friday that more than 1,000 nurses have registered in California and about 500 in New York.

The Oakland-based union is trying to raise donations for supplies, and is asking hospitals to grant the nurses paid time off.

Idelson says the union wants to begin sending nurses to a Miami command centre this weekend, so they’ll be ready to leave for Haiti when transportation is arranged.

Idelson says most of Haiti’s medical facilities are rubble and nurses may struggle finding places to work. (J/ca Gleaner)

JAMAICA HAS three active earthquake zones in two parishes along the eastern coast of the island, according to Dr Lyndon Brown, head of the Earthquake Unit and research fellow at the University of the West Indies, Mona.The zones are located near Kraal River and Milk River in Clarendon, and Wag Water River in St Mary.

While not providing any figures, Brown told The Gleaner that there were “a lot” of earthquakes in these areas last year.

“These, however, were low magnitude earthquakes,” he pointed out. According to the Earthquake Unit’s website, there are about 200 mostly minor earthquakes in and around Jamaica every year, registering a magnitude 4.0 or less.

earthquake/tsunami workshop

Brown’s disclosure came after a earthquake/ tsunami workshop put on by the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM) in Kingston on Thursday.

ODPEM Training Manager Cheryl Nichols said the workshop, designed for corporate and public-sector agencies, was planned long before the magnitude 7.0 earthquake rocked Haiti on Tuesday.

While noting that the lessons to be learned from Haiti are too difficult, Nichols said “we have to use it to channel how we move forward as a nation”.

She urged participants to rethink the way they prepared disaster plans for their companies. These plans, she stressed, should be understood by every employee and should be put to the test with regular earthquake drills.(J/ca Gleaner)

BEGINNING TODAY, commuters will start paying increased fares to travel on public passenger vehicles.The 20 per cent fare hike will apply to users of hackney carriages, rural stage carriages and route taxis.

Transport and Works Minister Mike Henry announced the increase on December 29 last year.

Travel on hackney carriages or in chartered taxis will now attract a base rate of $187.50 and a rate of $37.59 per kilometre.

Commuters travelling by route taxis will pay a base rate of $66 per kilometre, or $3.60 per kilometre.

Meanwhile, for rural stage carriages, a minimum rate of $26.40 will be charged and a per-kilometre rate of $3.40.

increased a year ago

The last fare increase was implemented in June 2008, resulting in a 25 per cent jump in travel costs.

The Transport Authority is advising that it will be monitoring the implementation of the fare increase.

In the meantime, the authority urges commuters to report incidents of overcharging by calling its toll-free line at 1-888-991-5687. (J/ca Gleaner)

Geneva (AP): Looters have broken into the United Nations food warehouses in Haiti’s crumbled capital, an official said on Friday. This unfolded as security and logistical challenges mount for groups trying to feed at least two million people reeling from a devastating earthquake.The UN World Food Programme had 15,000 tons of food aid in Haiti prior to Tuesday’s 7.0 magnitude earthquake, stocks designed for hurricane relief. Spokeswoman Emilia Casella said local partners reported that the UN warehouse in Port-au-Prince’s Cite Soleil neighbourhood was looted but the agency did not know how much aid was stolen or exactly when it was taken.

Clinton working on disaster fund

Washington, dc (AP):Former President Bill Clinton says he will try to pattern a disaster-assistance fund for earthquake-stricken Haiti along the same lines he and former President George H.W. Bush pursued for victims of the Asian tsunami. Clinton is a UN special envoy to Haiti, and President Barack Obama asked him to work with former President George W. Bush, the son of George H.W. Bush, on a fund-raising effort for victims of Tuesday’s 7.0 magnitude earthquake in Haiti.

‘Heartbreaking’

BBC News:

Tuesday’s earthquake has left as many as 50,000-100,000 people dead. Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive said more than 15,000 bodies had already been recovered and buried, French news agency AFP reported. US President Barack Obama described the scale of the devastation as extraordinary and the losses suffered as “heartbreaking”. (J/ca Gleaner)