New banana company undertakes fact finding mission
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Contact: Julita Peter
Wednesday, July 2, 2008 – The Banana Production Management Unit (BPMU) is at present focusing on formulating a data base, containing information on pertinent industry facts. This includes the number of persons currently planting bananas for sale and the total acreage still under production.
Gregory Avril, Programme Manager of the BPMU, which replaces the Banana Emergency Recovery Unit (BERU), said the number of acres under banana production in St. Lucia is still inconclusive.
“If you ask WIBDECO they might tell you between five thousand and five thousand five hundred; if you ask the Pest Management Unit, that is the section responsible for the disease control, they will say perhaps five thousand. We just did a program post Hurricane Dean and the information coming out of the program is that we have seven thousand plus acres. So we need to really establish the true acres,” Avril said.
The BPMU will also be engaging in an exercise to determine the farmers with the potential to improve productivity. This he believes, is important, in minimizing the wastage of time and resources. He argues that productivity and costs of inputs are the biggest hindrances in the banana sector.
“I believe this is one of the exercises I would like to do; identify the number of persons who are no longer in banana production, and are having a difficult time surviving. I have an interest in this, because I believe it is unfair that over the last so many years, persons gave so much of their time effort and energy to develop the country, as banana production made a significant contribution to the development of St. Lucia,” Avril added.
Avril agrees that the diversification thrust which the Ministry of Agriculture has over the years promoted, is a must, if banana farmers are to see real results. |
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