Bahamas News
01-25-05, - 12:39 PM
Canker Disease Could Spread
Royanne Forbes
The Bahama Journal
An Abaco official said on Monday that there have been reports that some of the citrus canker-infected trees at Bahamas Star grove in Treasure Cay have been stolen, prompting concerns that the deadly plant disease could spread to other groves.
“There were complaints of some pilferage,” admitted Revis Rolle, administrator for Marsh Harbour, in an interview with the Bahama Journal.
“Some people might have been stealing from the farm and that is very dangerous. That is the reason why I think that [government authorities] need to move very quickly because people obviously, those who are stealing, are not aware of the danger.”
But Agriculture Minister V. Alfred Gray said Monday night that he was not aware of such reports and planned to look into them.
Agriculture officials who planned this week to destroy the grove say they have been working to prevent a spread. They already expect the disease to cost the economy millions of dollars.
A wider outbreak, according to Minister Gray, would deal a more severe blow to the agriculture industry in The Bahamas.
It’s precisely the kind of concerns the Abaco administrator also has.
“Although it will cost a lot to demolish the farm, the quicker the better,” Mr. Rolle said.
On Sunday, Minister Gray indicated that the destruction will cost the government in the neighbourhood of $500,000, but he could not pin-point exactly when the exercise would start, although he said in the House of Assembly last Wednesday that it would begin immediately.
During an interview with the Bahama Journal on Monday, Dr. Earl Deveaux, former Minister of Agriculture in the Ingraham Administration and a local agricultural economist, acknowledged that many factors could be prohibiting the government from moving forward with its plans to destroy the disease-riddled citrus crop.
Minister Gray has said that authorities were getting bids from companies to carry out the work and had also been awaiting a special tractor to uproot the trees before they can be burnt.
“This is the first time we’ve faced this in The Bahamas…so someone who has said that we’ve waited too long might not understand all that’s involved because this is a first and you cannot compare it with anything else because it has never happened before,” Minister Gray had said on Sunday.
Dr. Deveaux, meanwhile, said that there should be heightened public awareness to prevent the spread of the disease.
“I think the disease has caught the country somewhat by surprise even though the likelihood of it coming here was known for a long time. Measures were always in place to prescribe how trees could be imported. This is a day that we all dreaded in The Bahamas, but now that it is here and we have to deal with it, I think it is vital to deal with it quickly and dispassionately,” Dr. Deveaux said.
He added, “We have a history of being loose with plant quarantine matters and here now you have the most severe threat to the most important sub-sector of our agriculture sector.”
Last week, Minister Gray said that the government had started transporting the children of the farm workers to and from school and the people living at the farm were being advised to change their clothing before leaving because the bacterial disease, though not harmful to humans, could be spread on clothing.
Dr. Deveaux noted that the bus should be sanitized, and all care should be taken to ensure that nobody coming from the farm carries away infected materials, including plants.
“If that isn’t taking place then you are increasing the risk of the spread of the disease on clothing, on hands, on the vehicles and on the tools,” he warned.
Minister Gray said police officials had been deployed to the Abaco farm to help monitor what is going in and what is coming out.
Government officials were also trying to determine how the disease got to The Bahamas. Minister Gray said there were reports in the Florida press that it had originated from the sunshine state, which is dealing with its own outbreak of citrus canker.
The Sun Sentinel reported last week that in recent weeks, the bacteria showed up for the first time in two of the region's biggest citrus counties, Indian River, with 50,012 acres and St. Lucie with 92,490 acres.
It also struck in residential Port St. Lucie and it surfaced northwest of Fort Pierce in the Spanish Lakes Fairways subdivision and in an adjoining grove in Indian River County.
As a result, the paper reports that the multimillion-dollar citrus harvesting and processing season is being cut in half, to four months.
Royanne Forbes
The Bahama Journal
An Abaco official said on Monday that there have been reports that some of the citrus canker-infected trees at Bahamas Star grove in Treasure Cay have been stolen, prompting concerns that the deadly plant disease could spread to other groves.
“There were complaints of some pilferage,” admitted Revis Rolle, administrator for Marsh Harbour, in an interview with the Bahama Journal.
“Some people might have been stealing from the farm and that is very dangerous. That is the reason why I think that [government authorities] need to move very quickly because people obviously, those who are stealing, are not aware of the danger.”
But Agriculture Minister V. Alfred Gray said Monday night that he was not aware of such reports and planned to look into them.
Agriculture officials who planned this week to destroy the grove say they have been working to prevent a spread. They already expect the disease to cost the economy millions of dollars.
A wider outbreak, according to Minister Gray, would deal a more severe blow to the agriculture industry in The Bahamas.
It’s precisely the kind of concerns the Abaco administrator also has.
“Although it will cost a lot to demolish the farm, the quicker the better,” Mr. Rolle said.
On Sunday, Minister Gray indicated that the destruction will cost the government in the neighbourhood of $500,000, but he could not pin-point exactly when the exercise would start, although he said in the House of Assembly last Wednesday that it would begin immediately.
During an interview with the Bahama Journal on Monday, Dr. Earl Deveaux, former Minister of Agriculture in the Ingraham Administration and a local agricultural economist, acknowledged that many factors could be prohibiting the government from moving forward with its plans to destroy the disease-riddled citrus crop.
Minister Gray has said that authorities were getting bids from companies to carry out the work and had also been awaiting a special tractor to uproot the trees before they can be burnt.
“This is the first time we’ve faced this in The Bahamas…so someone who has said that we’ve waited too long might not understand all that’s involved because this is a first and you cannot compare it with anything else because it has never happened before,” Minister Gray had said on Sunday.
Dr. Deveaux, meanwhile, said that there should be heightened public awareness to prevent the spread of the disease.
“I think the disease has caught the country somewhat by surprise even though the likelihood of it coming here was known for a long time. Measures were always in place to prescribe how trees could be imported. This is a day that we all dreaded in The Bahamas, but now that it is here and we have to deal with it, I think it is vital to deal with it quickly and dispassionately,” Dr. Deveaux said.
He added, “We have a history of being loose with plant quarantine matters and here now you have the most severe threat to the most important sub-sector of our agriculture sector.”
Last week, Minister Gray said that the government had started transporting the children of the farm workers to and from school and the people living at the farm were being advised to change their clothing before leaving because the bacterial disease, though not harmful to humans, could be spread on clothing.
Dr. Deveaux noted that the bus should be sanitized, and all care should be taken to ensure that nobody coming from the farm carries away infected materials, including plants.
“If that isn’t taking place then you are increasing the risk of the spread of the disease on clothing, on hands, on the vehicles and on the tools,” he warned.
Minister Gray said police officials had been deployed to the Abaco farm to help monitor what is going in and what is coming out.
Government officials were also trying to determine how the disease got to The Bahamas. Minister Gray said there were reports in the Florida press that it had originated from the sunshine state, which is dealing with its own outbreak of citrus canker.
The Sun Sentinel reported last week that in recent weeks, the bacteria showed up for the first time in two of the region's biggest citrus counties, Indian River, with 50,012 acres and St. Lucie with 92,490 acres.
It also struck in residential Port St. Lucie and it surfaced northwest of Fort Pierce in the Spanish Lakes Fairways subdivision and in an adjoining grove in Indian River County.
As a result, the paper reports that the multimillion-dollar citrus harvesting and processing season is being cut in half, to four months.