Citrus nurseries ordered closed

The Ministry of Agriculture has ordered the closure of all citrus nurseries across the island as part of efforts to step up the fight against the dangerous citrus greening disease which has been threatening the almost $4-billion industry.

The order came into effect on June 30 and also places a restriction on the sale of all citrus plants.

With the threat of the disease growing, the agriculture ministry is moving to retrofit the nurseries to ensure that they produce seedlings free of the disease which has affected citrus industries world-wide and was confirmed in Jamaica in 2009.

"We have closed the nurseries because they provide the new plants and we have to ensure that there is no way for the insects to enter the nurseries," Shelia Harvey, chief plant quarantine/produce inspector, told The Gleaner.

"The way the nurseries are made, we now need to change that by using finer mesh to keep out the insects," Harvey added, noting that would ensure that citrus growers can get disease-free plants to replace infected trees that they will have to cut down as there is no known cure for the citrus greening disease.

"The traditional approach is to control the vector by removing the infected plants and replacing them with clean plants from protected nurseries," said Alfred Barrett, programme manager at the Jamaica Citrus Protection Agency.

"In terms of Jamaica, we are also applying nutritional products to the infected trees to allow them to go back into production," Barrett added.

That is in keeping with a world-wide approach to deal with the disease.

"If it is introduced to an area, the management should be to keep the incidence at a very low level or the industry will be in danger," Brazilian researchers declared recently.

No illusion

Locally, the agriculture ministry is following that mantra as it is under no illusion about the danger the disease poses in terms of reduced productivity, diminished earnings from citrus exports and the shortage of fruits for local consumption.

"If the disease is not treated, it is going to kill an infected tree, but before that 60 per cent of the fruits will fall off, the fruits will be small and misshapen, and less sweet with more acid," Barrett told The Gleaner.

"In the ideal condition, fruit ripen from the bottom, but with the citrus greening disease the fruit ripen from the top to about halfway and then the rest remains green," added Barrett.

Barrett and Harvey were quick to point out that the citrus greening disease is not a threat to humans.