Yesterday we told you about how BSI along with several other stakeholders in the sugar industry have joined forces to investigate the spread of a fungal disease among a number of sugar cane crops in the Corozal district. Although the name of the disease has not yet been identified nor has the number of affected crops been ascertained, SIRDI held an open forum today on "fusarium infection" in sugar to teach farmers on how to identify a spread in their fields. The Minister of Agriculture also attended the forum and here's what he shared on how they are dealing with the situation.
Jose Mai, Minister of Agriculture
"I think, as you all know, this is a new disease of sugarcane caused by a fungus, fusarium. We do not yet know the exact species, we know the genus, which is fusarium, but there are so many fusariums, and they exist naturally in the soil, in areas, like Belize, tropical conditions."
"What happened is the high temperatures that we experienced with climate change apparently triggered off the fusarium to start to be a pathogenic agent now. So it's a disease-causing organism. So fusarium lives naturally in the soil, but it was not causing any disease."
"But the experts believe that with the climate change, the high temperatures in the soil, high humidity conditions, it had the perfect condition created for this to become a pathogenic agent and now causing a disease in sugarcane."
"In Belize, it's the first time that this disease is being reported. So the farmers are taking it very seriously. If you look at the amount of people here at this training, you will see that people are interested in disease, are very concerned about the disease, and so is the Ministry of Agriculture."
"So it just shows us that climate change is very important to us. It is causing serious problems to us. And so we must address it the best way possible. So SIRDI today invited this expert from Mexico, Ahinero Larry Balam, and he is now presenting to the farmers what exactly the disease is, what it causes, and how we can possibly control it."
"There's no magic bullet to solving this problem, right? It has to be an integrated approach, resistant varieties, conditions in the field that you have to do cultural practices and so on. So it has to be looked at from that perspective, from an integrated approach. And so that's what they are emphasizing today."
The 2 day forum also included field visits to observe the affected fields in the Corozal area.
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