 Aigripola Mubma Aigripola Jot Na Mubma Aigripola Mubma Aigripola Mubma Aigripola Mubma Aigripola Mubma Aigripola Mubma Helo again, Senglusha and welcome to the program Agrikulche Na Mubma I am Philip Sidney, your host Today we are discussing a very important issue That is International Day of Plant Health. And to have that discussion, my guest is a very passionate young lady. Her name is Hannah Romain, Hannah Dupal Romain and she is the Chief Plant Research Officer in the Department of Agriculture. Welcome Miss Romain. Thank you Mr. Sidney for having me. Great. Hannah, yesterday was International Plant Health Day, right? What is so significant about that? Okay Sidney, plant health. When we speak of plant health, we speak of plants, the value of healthy plants. And just before I give you a very good explanation of how important plant health is, we need to look at the importance of healthy plants. Plants from the basis of life. Plants, providers with food, clothing, so many things. And Sidney, today, you know, it's a time now to focus on how do we protect plants. So plant health is simply protecting plants, protecting the health of plants and showing that plants are healthier enough to carry on their functions in the ecosystem. So this day, the International Day of Plant Health, this is the very first time that the world has seen it, you know, the need to celebrate this day. And I am very excited Mr. Sidney that we in St. Lucia can partner with the rest of the world in recognizing the importance of plants and keeping plants healthy, you know. How do you view the impact of plants on human beings, looking at livelihoods? I mean, the impact is broad. I mean, let us have that discussion. Wow, plants, providers with our oxygen. That's important, our food. And of course, plants are important because our livelihoods we depend, our farmers depend on plants. It's important for economic development. Zero hunger. Sidney, can you imagine St. Lucia without bananas? No, yes. Can you imagine St. Lucia without coconuts? You know, and I keep saying this, but do we really understand plant health? A few years ago when I refer you to the situation in Florida, can you imagine Florida without citrus when you have the well-advertised Florida orange juice, you know, and guess what? A very... I mean, you can't even see it with the naked eye. It's a pathogen, destroyed the citrus groves of Florida, reducing production down to almost 60%. Can you imagine, and with all of the technology that's available, the resources in Florida, they could not have helped? This is the significance of plant health. Can you imagine St. Lucia without coconuts? Can you take a minute and... I mean, without bananas, with the oil, with the soap from coconuts, without bananas, our fig salad, I come on, our chicken back on green fig, without that? I mean, sometimes we need to really see how valuable our plants are and keep them healthy. As you mentioned bananas, we would not have had a banana expo last week. You saw the many derivatives from bananas. I mean, with the launching of our recipe book, we have 60 recipes from bananas. This is called children. The students did some fantastic recipes. Can you imagine no bananas? No bananas? I mean, just think of it for a moment. And the truth is, they are threatened, the banana industry threatened by so many pathogens out there. As we speak, South America is battling with what we call the TR4, Fusarium oxosporum. It's a tropical risk 4. It's a pathogen which destroys the banana industry. And sadly lately, what we are hearing now, is that there are no cure for diseases. And this is why I love the theme of this year's International Day of Plant Health, when it speaks to innovations, plant health innovations for food security. And this is the direction that we need to take. We need to now bring in resistant varieties because what we do have now cannot resist the very violent strains of pathogens that are coming around now. And we saw that in the past where we had banana varieties that were not able to withstand even when the black sega took a came and we had to move into new varieties. The tropical risk 1 and 2 destroyed the gromy shell. That's correct. So it tells you now, even the bananas that were so very tasty, they were very tasty. The gromy shell is tasty banana. These were the days. Very good. And now because of the pressures of pests and diseases, we now have to move into seeking to get new varieties. And look at what is going on on the horizon if you take a look at in the other Caribbean islands. Koko is at risk. There is this new disease called frosty pod rot in Jamaica. Koko is looking at just next door and Tiga is now battling with what you call little yellowing. This is destroying the coconut industry. And we have countries look just very close, Haiti, where we have what you call chuta absoluta, it's a disease that affects tomatoes. So we're seeing that every day a new disease is coming around destroying what you call as our basic food that we have on the table. Every day our coconut, our bananas, our tomatoes and even our citrus. Look at the varieties. Earlier we spoke of some of the varieties of citrus that we don't even see anymore. Yes, well yeah. The Shadok and the Gospo. And the Gospo almost extinct. Exactly. And these are the varieties that are less resistant and they disappear very quickly. We may not even be able to tell our children about those varieties, those cultivars. So it's very important that we take note of safeguarding our country's agriculture. Protecting our plants. Keeping them healthy. Ensuring that we don't introduce new pests into our countries. You know sometimes people are very fond of go traveling and they love to see beautiful things and they say to you wow I've never seen this variety in St. Lucia and they try to sneak in a little piece here and a little piece here and they say oh when I go home I'll grow this thing. Not that again. You have some prominent people who I know have tried it. Lawyers, magistrates and judges I know. I'm hearing on the time. They love what they see when they travel. And they don't understand the damage. But they don't understand the damage because these pathogens you cannot see them with your naked eyes and they can move on any piece of planting material whether it be a leaf whether it be a stem whatever it is it can move under this planting material and before you know you have a huge problem in St. Lucia. Take for example the issue we had a while ago with the pink mealy bug. Can you imagine the damage this thing caused? Our hotels, landscapes were beautifully decked with high biscuits and quickly when this thing came into St. Lucia. But our sorrels were affected. Our sorrels, sour soup destroyed completely after they liked it. We cannot have a healthy this is reality and we now have to understand we must protect the plants that we have. St. Lucia is blessed with biodiversity and abundance of biodiversity and when we come in with new pathogens could you imagine the damage it causes? So Sydney this is a day that I really think that we all should come together and play our part and not wait when the problem comes in here that we all run out as firemen to put it out. No, we need to be proactive. We need to ensure that we share this information out there keep our countries free of pests and diseases. Let us not try to smuggle plant material into the country. I mean we are only destroying what we have. Exactly. There is another significant area that we have to look at and that is the economic benefit. You know how much money is being spent on the control of Black Sea Gatoka? Thank you. Do you know the amount of milk right now? I remember there was a problem with the exporting bananas to Barbados and the millibug in the fingers between its way and then they have rejected many containers of those exporters at their own cost. So the farmer themselves cannot be paid. So you realize how important this thing is? Sidney, anytime a new pest or disease enters the country the cost of managing those diseases is very high and it increases the cost of production of that commodity and I would say to my friends could you imagine the days when we paid 10 cents for red banana? I know 75 cents for red banana. In fact, now it's green gold. Before it used to be green gold but after Hurricane Elsa when you went to the supermarket you could not get red bananas. Only then people realized hello how important red bananas is to us. So just not when you look at it the cost of production increases then you have the markets out there who are able to put restrictions on your bananas coming into their country because they to understand the danger of introducing pests into their countries. So they are very hard on you and they ensure that hey you meet all of the requirements before you take your bananas or your other commodity to their country. So we need to safeguard what we have we need to protect it and we need to ensure that whatever we have here that we are able to now export a fruit or commodity which is free of pests and diseases. We speak of Saint Lucia as signatory to the International Plant Protection Convention and we have to abide by the guidelines and standards of the International Plant Protection Convention and we need to ensure that the fact of sanitary standards that are put in place must be adhered to. So it is not a time where persons think hey we can just send over our mangoes to the U.S. or send our bananas or say no it cannot but you remember as you mentioned mangoes remember there is a problem with mangoes to Barbados you know remember we used to export mangoes to Barbados at Libino I remember as a little kid they used to send mangoes in those big wooden crates and somebody I think went and opened a mango seed and there was a mango weevil which is not affecting the mango and you realise what happened to our exporters to Barbados it cost us That's correct so now there are new standards now you have to now do so many treatments before this mango can access this market and this is the situation so there are fighters and interior standards that you must adhere to which is costly on the part of the farmers before the commodity is taken to the outside market so you see how the pressure that is placed on our farmers our exporters before we can access those markets very very costly Sydney and over the years we've come to realise that hey pests are moving more than ever we have transboundary pests we have pests now because of climatic changes or changes in climatic conditions pests are now able to live in any condition that they arrive at because they are able to adapt very quickly and they are able to reproduce very quickly and survive in whatever condition that they arrive at so now the pressure is really really tough because now you now have pests moving into areas that they did not exist in the past and they are able to do very well hold that point because we are due for our break you are watching agriculture on the move stay tuned don't go away we have a lot in store for you banana farmers remember me I destroyed the Grumichelle banana variety some years ago now my cousin tropical risk 4 or TR4 a fusirium wilt banana disease is on the horizon in a more aggressive form and can wipe out the banana industry in a flash be vigilant don't bring any banana plants or plant tissue into the island report any unusual symptoms on your banana plots to the department of agriculture at telephone 468 5600 or the extension officer in your area remember protect our vital banana industry welcome back to the program agriculture on the move of course with me is me says Hannah Romain who is the chief plant research officer in the Minnesota agriculture and we are discussing international day of plant health very very very important Miss Romain let's look at for example what is required for someone traveling who wants to actually send stuff maybe the exporters and they want to send mango plant parts or whatever the case maybe over to another country or they are traveling and they want to carry some mangoes or whatever to their family overseas and also if they want to import what are the prerequisites okay Mr Sidney and very good question we know that we carry on people carrying things we don't move without our favorite mango we don't move without our favorite spices we want it wherever we go definitely and however when you take in plant commodities to any country it's important especially if you're an exporter to get to know what are the requirements of this country when you have received the requirements of this country the country provides you with what you call an import permit the import permit stipulates all of the requirements for entry of this commodity we try to meet the requirements and we provide you with what you call a phytosanitary certificate which indicates all of the treatments that perhaps the country of import would have asked us to meet this is very important also when you wish to import we need to ensure that whatever that you are importing does not pose a risk to our agriculture that's very important so what we do we conduct a pest risk analysis so this pest risk analysis simply helps us to look at the risk involving bringing this commodity whether this commodity is invasive whether it carries there's a likelihood of it carrying any pathogen which may affect our agriculture whether this commodity is coming from an environment where there are other pathogens the commodity may be a host itself or it may be moving with pathogens or perhaps an alternate host so we need to study that commodity we need to understand where exactly it's coming from in this country whether it's exposed to anything any risk and before we allow you we provide you with what you call an import permit when we have been provided with this import permit we need to ensure that we stipulate all of the requirements for bringing this commodity in so if this commodity is coming from a country where there may be another pest high risk or it's high risk we may require treatment you may require to do some treatment you may require to declare whether this you have any of any pests that are associated with this commodity and if everything goes is okay then we issue you what we call an import permit and the exporting country needs to present to us what you call a phytosanitary certificate similarly to indicate that hey we have met all of your requirements and this commodity is free and it doesn't pose any threat to your natural resources or agriculture in Central Asia now there are an embargo on certain plants and plant material that is not expected to come into San Lucia and I know you have things like coconuts even the musta species and it's other you know plant parts and whatever the case may be tell us the reason why you know for example somebody cannot come in if a coconut a hot mint of coconut straw okay Sydney is very very important that persons understand that the pathogens that are moved on some of the items they cannot see to the naked eye could you imagine you take this straw hat and to a microscope and you see all of those mites on this and I can just take a moment thousands of them you know thousands of mites San Lucia had an issue with well we still do have an issue with the red palm mites it is not so much aggressive like the past we have seen a decline in the population but we did have an incursion of red palm mites some years ago and it really recovered with the coconut industry where we saw the plums they were declining we saw yellowing and it could have come in on probably a straw hat like you mentioned because the mites can leave on plant material and sometimes these straw hats are from green plants they are not allowed to dry first so you can be moving with so many pathogens on this small item so this is why sometimes I know some people love their fruits they love their items, their craft but we are so sorry because we are only helping you in the end and the country in the end take for example some persons you meet them and they say oh I do not want to get rid of these apples but could you imagine the number of larvae and eggs of perhaps fruit flies that you are moving in it looks beautiful on the outside but there can be so many eggs of a fruit fly in there and the moment it gets into Senjusha opportunity to get out and continue its life cycle and before you know it you have an issue with a new species of fruit flies and thankfully Senjusha only has one species of fruit fly and this is what you call Anastrephoblica the West Indian fruit fly so many persons who love their guavas and their red plums you will see this oozing out there because the adult would have already laid its egg in there and you will see this little we only have one species but when you go to many other countries you have 7 species of fruit flies affecting one fruit we do not want to get to this stage Sydney I mean one is enough we can still enjoy too much rather you so correct one is too much we can still enjoy our beautiful red plums we can still enjoy our yellow plums in spite of the fact that we do understand that we have the West Indian fruit fly so these are the things that we say to people they may look beautiful but we know what comes with it sometimes you have Hitchhiker pest you may have containers the famous giant african snail the giant african snail Hitchhiker pest they can find themselves between crevices of tires or containers and when they get here but I was told it came from via the kanuza it is alleged it is alleged but this happens you do have Hitchhiker pest pest have no boundaries they move all over and people travel more commodities move more so you do find that there is an increase in pest movement and one of the issues that we have now is what you call e-commerce has created a headache because persons can now sit in the comfort of their homes and think they can just order seeds on e-bay or order seeds on Amazon you cannot do that because you do not know what treatments these seeds would have gone through we need to ensure that the seeds that you are bringing in are certified seeds because tomorrow the problem will be on the hands of the Ministry of Agriculture because you have farmers saying we have problems with this but at times it is because they have not had head to the protocol we cannot allow you to just go online shop over buy your seeds and expect them to be brought into the country and to be used in our systems it puts more pressure you have new pest you now have to look for new management options you now have to look for increased use of pesticides which is another thing altogether costly and not just costly it is toxic to the environment we are not protecting the environment toxic to us human beings so we want to save our environment we want to protect our biodiversity we want to be able to use products that are very friendly to the environment and we have been preaching about alternative pesticides so these are very important we do understand how important our biodiversity is how the environment is and we need to understand that we need to protect it with the TR4 on the horizon what preparations that we have made thus far in ensuring that our borders are safe so we have done quite a bit of public awareness campaigns so you would head up on our television we are encouraged to ensure that we meet all the requirements the phytosanitary requirements when we are moving in any plant commodity we have been putting together training packages for farmers we have not rolled out all of them we are of course bananas and plantains and all of the moosa species under our legislation is not allowed into St. Lucia so we are very rigid on this to ensure that you are not moving any plant material with this and we are sensitizing generally the public as to what are the the requirements to bring in plant material we try to encourage the farmers if you do need any support in terms of planting material come into the ministry of agriculture we can assist you we also have been working with the Caribbean Plant Health Directors Forum they have been giving us quite a bit of support so we have put together what you call an emergency action plan and the event that this thing comes in so we have been reviewing our emergency action plan and showing that we are ready in the event hopefully this thing does not come in but I'm sure you have some food buffs at the various parts so we are working towards getting resources to begin installing those food buffs on our parts of entry and of course begin on even our farms so the biosecurity is very important I mean we do understand the nature of the pathogen it can move on shoes it can move in soil so we do understand that as I mentioned soil and hana how do you all approach use vehicles like equipment tractors, loaders they come on the wharf the wheels are loaded with soil and you know soil is a transporter of so many diseases et cetera how would you all handle that? Sydney I'm happy you asked this question but thankfully we have a cadre of plant quarantine officers who have been doing a very good job behind the scenes and kudos to them so it is their duty to ensure that when this equipment comes in we request that they be cleaned, power washed at the ports of entry so that we do not bring in any inoculum in we encourage that fumigation if there is need for it so we do have you all have a mechanism in place for that I know that as we are about to end you all have many, you all collaborate with a lot of other institutions but quickly can you mention some of them? Yes Sydney, we cannot do it alone and thankfully we have the support of IECA we have the support of the USDA AFES the CAFSA which is the Caribbean Agriculture Health and Food Safety Agency we also have the support of FAO I mentioned we have the support of even right here in Senusha the customs, first line of defence we have been working very closely Sydney and they have been really helping us and protecting the borders I know you are passionate about this thing but you know we are coming to an end of the program but I know it is not a one shot program and I am thinking not because it is international past day you will do it as a one shot thing we will have to come back again to have a continuous discussion to sensitize the public so thank you for being here and I wish you success and I know you have been doing a good job with your plan quarantine officers so again kudos to you and of course on that important day thank you again for being here you have been watching agriculture on the move and remember agriculture is our business and eat fresh Senusha's best the money stays here and we get more health here I am Philip Sydney, goodbye