 Hello again, St. Lucia. Welcome to the program, Agriculture on the Move. My name, Phillip Sidney, your host. Today, we are just refreshing your mind on a banana disease that is of potential threat to St. Lucia banana industry. We shared it with you a few years ago, not too long ago. But we think it's important to remind you because we tend to forget. If this disease hits St. Lucia, you can see our banana industry is wiped out. And I'm referring to the tropical race for what we call the TR4, fusarium wilt disease that affects the banana in general. All the moosa species will be affected if that ever hits St. Lucia. So here to discuss this program with me is Mr. Cletus Alexander, who is the plant protection officer attached to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Food Security, and Rural Development. Welcome to the program. Thank you, and thanks for having me. Cletus, I believe that it's important for us to, you know, we started this drive with a bang. You know, all of a sudden, you know, we dip again, you know, because we are, we, St. Lucia's have a way of, you know, yes, the problem is there. But until it probably, nothing is our problem until it hits crisis. And I believe before it reaches crisis, we need to reaffirm St. Lucia what the program is all about. So tell St. Lucia, what is TR4? TR4 is a soil-borne fungus and the causative agent for wilt in bananas. Now, this disease was discovered in Asia in the 1960s. Now, from Asia, it spread to Southeast Asia, then spread to Africa. Then from Africa in 2019, it was detected in Colombia in 2019. Then from Colombia, it was detected in Peru last year. And this year, it has been identified in Venezuela. That's what it's doing. Yeah, next door. So we are a bit concerned about this disease. Now, TR4 is a very, very dangerous disease. It is one of the most destructive diseases ever known to plant pathology. So we never thought that disease would be on our shores so quickly. So definitely we have to step up with the campaign. We have to educate farmers as to what the disease is. Now, that disease, we have the tropical risk and the subtropical risk. Now, sadly for us, it is called TR4, which is a tropical risk. Now, for the tropical risk, you don't need any agent to predispose your plant to the disease. So that organism is going to attack the plant. It attacks the plant through the root. And then it affects the vascular bundles. When I see the vascular bundles, that is the xylem and the phloem, the xylem for the water and the phloem for the food. So if definitely those two very important tissues are affected, it means the plant will not be able to take in all the water and the food, and the plant is going to wilt and die. Now, the scientific name of the fungus is fusarium odoratissimum. That is the scientific name of the disease. As I said in your introduction, we need to step up. Yeah, we need to, because we made a big, big hua about it. But what are the symptoms? Yes, you said it is taken up by the roots and into the vascular bundles. But then from the liman standpoint, from the farmer standpoint, there are other diseases. How will he be able to identify the TR4? What are the symptoms and signs and symptoms? Well, for TR4, you have this kitten of the pseudostem. There is a stem of the banana plant. You have the lower leaves. It will turn yellow. Now, you may find instances where the plant is affected, but you don't see any symptoms. Now, the leaves, they're going to collapse around the plant, like a skirt forming a skirt around the plant. And once that happens, you can guarantee yourself that you have TR4. Now, for TR4, remember, in the 1950s, we had the Groumichael variety. Now, in the 1950s, it affected the Groumichael so badly that we had to replace the Groumichael variety with the Cavendish variety, which is a tolerant variety. Now, presently, we have the race two of the same disease affecting the macambo. Now, for TR4, it's going to affect all the species. Bananas, we are concerned, not only for bananas, plantain as well, because plantain is a very important crop in St. Lucia. So the symptoms, as I said, the wilting, the yellowing of the lower leaves, the splitting of the pseudostem. Now, if you cut the stem, you're going to see the damaged vascular bundles of the banana. Now, it's very important, again, that the symptoms for phosphorus deficiencies in bananas where the yellowing of the lower leaves looks similar. So it's very important now that a professional diagnose that problem for you. So, again, it is very important. We are concerned because it is next door. That is why I'm saying we need to really, from today, step up. Do all the outreach programs out there. Educate the farmers about TR4, the extension of officers. Everybody now, you have to educate them about the whole TR4 disease. Will TR4 affect a plant after it is boiled, after it is shot? Well, since it is a soil-borne disease, it can affect the plant at any time. You have it in the soil, and once you have this particular disease, you cannot eradicate because it is soil-borne. And again, once the disease is identified, it means it has been there for years. So eradication is not possible. Now, in terms of the science, there are no pesticides to deal with this particular issue. We were lucky in that when Black Seagull took a came, we had fungicide to deal with this particular fungus. But for TR4, you don't have any fungus presently. Fungicides are to control this particular fungus. Only thing you can rely on, as we were lucky in the 1950s, we had tolerant varieties to risk one. But for TR4, researchers are working behind the scenes to make sure that we get some of those tolerant varieties. But let's assume we are affected. Countries like Colombia, as I said, Peru and so on, there are no tolerant varieties to deal with the disease right now. Okay, to get TR4 into St. Lucia, to our shores, it's a soil-borne disease, okay? Tourists are coming in from neighboring islands, Venezuela. I'm sure they have a tourism industry. They come in here with their shoes. Maybe I hear they go on hikes. And I'm sure they would go on hikes in those countries that are affected, okay? How was the control that is from the human standpoint? You also have secondary vehicles and machinery coming in like tractors and coming in St. Lucia's second hand. And I'm sure if you go to the dock, you'll realize that some of them, they do have soil particles on them. How is that preventable into your island? Well, for this particular disease, the best form of defense is exclusion. You have to prevent the entry of this disease. Now to do that, you have to step up the quarantine, strengthen the quarantine services. In terms of, because we've realized, tourism is a very important pathway for this particular disease. We need to introduce biosecurity measures at the ports of entry. Where persons now, they go into disinfect the shoes when they come in because it's soil-borne. Machinery, all the used vehicles that we have all around the place are the ports of entry. We need to probably try to wash those vehicles before we take it out. Are you saying we need to? Is it being done? Well, presently it's not being done, but we need to. If you have to... But who will strengthen that? Because, I mean, the disease is almost at our shores. Yes, it's just like that. So, I'm hearing you. We spoke about that the last time, about two years ago, you know, but people are still coming in. I don't see any foot baths at the various points of entry. I remember we discussed that. I remember there was a little committee that was formed, which I was on that committee. And we were looking at importing some of the foot baths. There was a cost thing done. I remember to that. Where are we today? Well, again, we have had some limitations as well, because the substance we're looking at in terms of the foot baths, it is quaternary ammonium. And the quaternary ammonium is very corrosive as well. Okay. Yes, you have to be careful as to how you handle the quaternary ammonium. Let's assume you put the quaternary ammonium at a particular concentration at the points of entry. You may have persons with sensitive skins and so on, where it can affect you. So it is very important now, not only at the points of entry, we need to, even at the farm level, we need to introduce the biosecurity measures as well. And some of the recommendations are, first of all, use of tools. As a banana farmer, you should not allow a worker who's working for your neighbor to use the same tools on your farm. For sure, it has to be disinfected. The boots that the person is going to use, you have to make sure that they are clean before the person enter the farm. There are some countries, like the Colombians, what they're doing, fencing. Persons are fencing the farms. Even foot baths you have to put at the farm level as well. So it is a very expensive disease to try to control and to prevent the spread. Because as I said, we have to prevent the entry into the country and we have to, the spread as well. Let's assume it is detected in Saint Lucia. We have to eradication, you cannot eradicate, but we have to try to prevent spread. So movement of planting material. You should not take planting material from an infected field. Or my recommendation is, try not to take the movement of banana plants, should be from one island to the next. But one from one district to the next. It should be restricted as well. Because you don't want to find yourself in a situation where those plants are being transported from different areas and then you are spreading the disease. Because presently, we are not sure whether this is, because we have not conducted any Suvi in that regard. Why not? In terms of surveillance, to do the surveillance, you need a reference lab to do the surveillance. And maybe for now, that is work in progress. We are trying to identify a reference lab. In the Caribbean, presently, we have no reference lab to deal with the TR4. We need to do our surveillance. Because with surveillance, that is where you look at early detection. Because the earlier you take action if the disease is in the country, the better it will be for you. Because you will definitely try to continue the spread of the disease. Is there, within the islands, a sort of a collaboration to find out the status of other islands, vis-a-vis hours, like the wind up islands were producing bananas? Have you all gone to see an island infested with the disease to find out exactly what are they doing? Is there some collaboration? So you know exactly the preventative measures to be taken, does it work? Yes, definitely. We are part of the regional Musa Technical Working Group. And I'm a member of that committee where you have the holy islands of the Caribbean, including Dominican Republic, where we try to work together to try to share technologies. We even have a CRAD, the French Research Group. Working with us, where we're trying to... Even last week, we had a meeting on me, trying to source some of those tolerant varieties where we can do our own research in case we have this particular disease. And we also, at the regional level, we've prepared our regional work program, our regional emergency action plan. Even in St. Lucia, we've prepared our own action plan. We're working in collaboration with Dr. Esther Peralta, which is a consultant hired by the FAO to work with us for preparing in case that disease is coming in. Okay, hold that point. You're watching agriculture on the move. We'll do for a break. Don't go away. Stay tuned. With chemical treatment of Black Cegatoka, practice routine preventative maintenance of all tools and equipment, especially the mist blower, to ensure proper functioning. Clean sprayer after use and service the machine regularly, as recommended by the manufacturer. Whenever you are using pesticides to control Black Cegatoka disease, personal protection and safety measures must be followed. Spray operators must always wear proper protective gear. Be for or when handling pesticides, put on your overalls, respirator, goggles, boots, and gloves to avoid contact with the skin, inhalation, and ingestion of pesticides. For more information on how to treat and control Black Cegatoka on your farm or in your backyard garden, contact the Black Cegatoka Management Unit at 451-5491 451-5894 or email bpmu at cndw.lc. This message is brought to you by the Ministry of Agriculture in collaboration with the International Cooperation and Development Fund of the Republic of China on Taiwan. Welcome back to the program, Agriculture on the Move. I am Philip Sidney, and of course with me, Mr. Cletus Alexander, who is the crop protection officer in the Ministry of Agriculture. And we are talking about the Tropical Race 4, TR-4, Physerium Wilt disease that's affecting the Musa species. Unlike the others that we are able to control, which of course have economic importance, the yellow Cegatoka, and we had the black Cegatoka, which can be controlled by spraying aerially and otherwise, because of the way the spores are being transmitted. This one is a soil-borne disease, which is rather difficult. Cletus, we need now to look at how we are very monitoring our farmers, and of course our extension officers in order to prepare them for, in case, I know it will hit here at some point in time. Yes, we can delay the entry, but we can prevent it. So apart from the preventative measures, which is the plant quarantine measures at the various spots, which again is difficult, because we have so many parts of entries, guys are traveling via speedboats and doing other illegal stuff, and they can get into Senusia by just bringing in soil. So sometimes... But then how are we going to train our people long here? As I said, we've prepared our program. So we have a plan to train the extension officers in terms of identification of the disease out in the field. Also, at the laboratory level, you need persons to diagnose the problem. In the lab as well. Now we have some equipment at the new lab, like a PCR machine and so on. But we need other tools, like what is called a lamp. This is a tool that is able to... We can do a rapid assessment of the... When you go out in the field, you can do a rapid assessment, and then that tool will give you an indication as to whether the disease is present. And from there, you can probably check the reference lab and then send samples to the reference lab. We need to train farmers as well in terms of identification of the disease. As I said, some of the symptoms of the disease, they are similar to some of the diseases that we have. For example, as I mentioned earlier on, the phosphorus deficiency, it looks similar. If you cut the pseudo stem, you may see some brown spots along the vascular tissues, but this is similar as well to... If you have pesticide toxicity in the plant as well. So we need to go out in the field now, educate the farmers in terms of disease identification. Also, the biosecurity measures that disinfecting of the tools and the food bags and so on in terms of the importance of not transporting the planting material from one area to the next, you have to make sure that the plants are disease-free and so on. This is difficult to know that if the plant is disease-free, but that can only be done if you work with the Ministry of Agriculture, you work with the extension officers, you work with the banana technicians, and then probably will be more confident in saying that we can manage the disease. But for now, we are unprepared. You're lazy to answer. Yeah, we are unprepared because as I said, we do not have a reference lab and in the Caribbean with the UAE does not have a reference lab to really... The only place I can think of is with the Taiwanese because the Taiwanese had the problem in the 1960s. And what happened to the Taiwanese is, yes, Taiwan had a viable banana industry in the 1960s, but because of RISC-1 and RISC-4, it wiped out the banana industry in Taiwan. So we have a lot of research happening in Taiwan in terms of some of the tolerant varieties, like the GCTV-19 and so on. So they have capacity in that regard. We're also looking at South Africa, one of the best experts in the field is in South Africa, but we, as I said, we need to, again, all those technicians. We need to have a roster of all those technicians where they are and how we can source them in case that we have this particular problem. Because I have an issue, you know, I'll tell you why. We were here, like I said, about maybe two years ago discussing this, but at the time when we discussed it, that problem, it was very, very important. It was urgent, okay? But that discussion we are having, what I'm hearing is nothing has been done since we last spoke. Nothing has, in fact, you know, what is of concern to me, the little committee that we have, I mean, I've never heard of a meeting or a committee for a very, very, very long time. So I'm thinking, what surveillance do we have? Are we going out there with our auger, taking soil samples to find out exactly around the island and come back and to come back and say, hey, yes, so far, we do not have any symptoms of that disease and lucha. Something is not right as far as I'm concerned with us. Well, I will not say we have not done anything. All right. We have prepared an emergency action plan. In terms of training, we've gotten training from the FAO. We have had some outreach programs, like the one that we have in there right now. We have developed some posters, some TR for posters, but I agree that by now that those posters, academic posters, they should have been every new component in the banana area. Even from the school standpoint, it's a good medium that could use to at least get the information out there. But even training as well, we have had some training, but it's online training. In terms of the working with the consultant, yes, the consultant, in terms of disease diagnosis with extension officers and so on, we have gotten some training. We have attended regional training in terms of the surveillance. But in terms of doing the actual surveillance, we have not really done the surveillance. As I said, we need, it's almost a hindrance to say, well, you'll do this to the surveillance, but when you take the samples, you cannot test the samples to find out whether the disease is here or not. So another cannot, does it have the capacity for that? We have a PCR machine, but all the equipment that is needed, we don't. We need persons to operate the PCR machine. We need training for those persons. As I said, in terms of this protocol for the surveillance, we need to develop a protocol for the surveillance within that last week at the regional level. But these are some of the issues. We are working hard, but I must say we have not done anything. We are working hard, but I honestly believe we should have been doing more. Of course, for example, okay, you mentioned about the Taiwanese, right? They have expertise in that regard, okay? Have anyone gone to Taiwan for training to handle the equipment or the necessary equipment that's required for that program? No, we have not, because as I said, funding seems to be the issue. When we have problems of that nature, most times, because remember again, when we had the committee, we then COVID came, and it's sort of the COVID came, we had a task force and so on. But what has happened with the task force? We have not had any meetings and so on. But why? Well, again, with task force, that's the issue you have. Sometimes you have a task force, you have so many persons on the task force. It's very difficult to call everybody in and discuss the issue or take decisions and so on. So I'm of the view that now, yes, we'll be some of the experience that we have had with the task force. It's very critical now that we call in a few agencies like the Fairtrades and so on, and then have a small committee to deal with the issue. Because the issue, as I said, it's urgent. With TR4, TR4 can wipe out the entire banana industry. Can't. In terms of livelihood, a lot of persons still depend on banana production. As you saw with regional trade, there is still a market for bananas in terms of regional trade. And not only bananas, plantain is a very important crop. Now you see persons now gravitating towards processing of the plantain, the plantain chips and so on. A lot of persons like the macambu and so on. You see ripe bananas all around the place. And our persons are selling ripe bananas before that never used to happen. And hopefully we're going into the school feeding program. Right, all those issues. These issues, we are at a critical stage. Right now we cannot sit back. We need to step up. What is to step up? Who is to step it up and put us? The officers like myself, the Ministry of Agriculture, the banana farmers, they need to be more significant. This is not a program. I already mentioned about your annual program. But is there a specific program giving timelines as to what will be done in one year, a short term, a medium term, a long term? I mean, I'm not hearing that. Yes, as I said, we have done this. We have this work plan. But in terms of, that's the issue we have. Implementation. When you start an only implementation, ownership of the work plan, because remember you won the committee and all. What we saw was that ownership of the work plan was a bit difficult, because at that time you had the banana BIP. Right, BIP. We will not show as to who should take the ownership, who should drive it, whether it's the Ministry of Agriculture, whether it is the banana BIP. BIP, yeah. So these are some of the issues. Now it's time to take some decisions. I think we need to move from there. Yes, it's not only decisions. As I said, we need to show our presence out there. Look at the Minister. He's almost two years into his term. I don't think he was aware of that at all. Yes, again, we've written the policy brief. I think we've given it to the Minister. I think he's running away with this. And we are patiently waiting. I think, again, we should... Even at the senior management level, we need to sell out this thing to them. How urgent it is, how important it is, if that disease is detected in St. Lucia. So as I said, we cannot relax. I don't think we should relax because what I think is happening, if tomorrow, after this program tomorrow is detected, then you'll see money coming in in order to control. And you know there's no control. Well, no, but in terms of funding, funding is a major issue because you cannot have the whole program and you cannot implement the whole program without the funding. Final words, sir? Two seconds. Well, final words, we are the crossroads. Our banana industry is threatened. And this devastating disease is just next door. So we need to do whatever we can to prevent the entry of the disease. If the disease is here, we need to early detection to take all the necessary measures to prevent spread in the island. So in the coming weeks, we're going to have more programs in terms of outreach, training of farmers, having the posters all around the place and so on. I think the time is right for us to work. Well, Kamra, thank you very much for being here. And again, I would want you again to be back to give an idea of where you act. I'm sure with this program, you will start off and to move on and to ensure that some things will happen. So thank you for being here. Sure, thank you. You have been watching Agriculture on the Move. I'd like to thank you for viewing the program. Exchange, agriculture is afano. See, fig glass is afano. This is a fig that is afano. Kute, if it's a very happy official who serve tier 4 practice at Lisi. Namuse, Philippe Sidney, Mokkadi, Dedi.