Cocoa farmers in St Mary want help to fight ‘Frosty Pod’ disease
Some cocoa farmers in St Mary, Jamaica, are crying out for the Government’s help to fight the Frosty Pod disease which is ravishing their farms.
Farmers in
the districts of Enfield, Belfield, Richmond, Rock River and surrounding areas
have been badly affected by the ‘Frosty Pod’ disease, which was confirmed in
2016. The disease has severely reduced and, in some cases, destroyed the yield
of Jamaica’s internationally acclaimed fine flavour cocoa.
Hundreds of
persons who are connected to the cocoa industry are now suffering severe
hardships as a result of the economic fallout from the disease.
The People’s
National Party’s (PNP) caretaker for St Mary South East, Dr Shane Alexis said
the Government’s initial response, administered by the Quarantine Division of
the Ministry of Agriculture to prune the affected trees, has now left many
cocoa farmers with trees that cannot produce fruit.
“As a
result, now, they cannot earn an income from their cocoa fields,” he said.
He said the
Minister of Agriculture, Audley Shaw, must now act quickly and decisively to
rescue the economic prospects of the cocoa farmers and restore confidence in
the industry.
The last
national cocoa planting programme was more than 50 years ago. Jamaica’s annual
production of cocoa was almost 3,000 tonnes between 1995 and 1996, but it is
now down to only 100 tonnes.
