Frosty pod rot infestation plunge sprouts optimism
Published:Saturday | April 30, 2022 | 12:08 AMChristopher Serju/Senior Gleaner Writer
More than five years after Jamaica committed to spend $150 million to eradicate the deadly frosty pod rot disease over three years, the infestation has been brought down to a manageable level, according to the agriculture ministry.
Chief Plant Quarantine/Produce Inspector Sanniel Wilson Graham told The Gleaner that out of an estimated 8,010 acres of cocoa cultivation islandwide, some 6,000 acres have already been subject to management practices – pruned and the pods stripped and treated with agricultural grade lime.
“In terms of management, in terms of how widespread the frosty pod rot disease is, we now need to be assessing its prevalence. In our last monitoring and evaluation, it is now down to 2.76 per cent of the 6,000 acres that we would have done. This means that of every 1,000 pods that we sampled, only three were showing a resurgence of the disease, which is absolutely good because our original target was to reduce the prevalence to 40 per cent,” Wilson Graham disclosed.
Having reduced the disease infestation, the country will now have to manage it as it may not be totally eliminated.
The highly contagious disease, which affects the fruit of the cocoa plant, was discovered in Jamaica in 2016 and has since caused serious damage to the cocoa industry, reducing crop yield by up to 80 per cent per year.
“Where we are now, it is manageable and, in fact, we are actually now seeing an increase in the production of those trees that have received management and I think an overall increase in production in the cocoa sector,” Wilson Graham told The Gleaner.
“We are now going into long-term management. ... Because the disease will be with us, we are now literally instituting its management, farmer training farmer, where they routinely incorporate its management on their farms in terms of their everyday agronomic practices,” she added.
According to the chief plant quarantine/produce inspector, like Colombia, where the frosty pod has been around for at least 100 years, Jamaica is already implementing strategies to keep its cocoa production levels on the increase.
Cocoa production in Colombia increased by almost 66 per cent between 2011 and 2021 and reached over 70,000 metric tons last year. Despite a drop in production recorded between 2017 and 2018, the figure reported in 2021 is the highest cocoa production recorded in the country since 2010.
“It is how they have been able to manage it on a long-term basis that would have allowed them to survive. Jamaica is not just managing this disease but we also looking now at putting in what we call highly tolerant varieties,” Wilson Graham pointed out, with the ministry’s Frosty Pod Rot Disease Management Project set to be officially closed at the end of August.
Jamaica’s cocoa is one of eight recognised by the International Cocoa Organization with 100 per cent exclusive ‘Fine Flavour’ status among cocoa-producing countries in the world.