Fungal diseases affecting pumpkins, squash and watermelons are among the problems being reported to agricultural extension officers, with concerns that some farmers’ planting practices could be increasing their crops’ vulnerability to infection.
The Barbados Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (BADMC) has identified inadequate crop rotation as a major challenge, while the Barbados Agricultural Society (BAS) says limited land and the need to maintain established markets may influence what farmers choose to grow.
BADMC Agronomist Rontia Crichlow raised the concerns as she responded to questions from Barbados TODAY during an Agri-Clinic at Six Roads, St Philip, on Thursday.
She said fungal pathogens were among the technical problems being brought to the corporation’s extension department, particularly in cucurbit crops, including pumpkins, squash and watermelons.
“A big challenge that we are having, I think, is persons [not] adhering to a specific crop rotation schedule,” she said.
Repeated cultivation of the same crop or closely related crops can let certain pathogens persist in the soil, increasing the risk of infection in later planting cycles. Crop rotation helps interrupt that cycle and reduce the buildup of disease-causing organisms.
Crichlow said BADMC was encouraging farmers to vary their planting schedules and adopt integrated pest and disease management practices, which involve using different methods to prevent and control agricultural pests and diseases.
“Integrated pest and disease management means that when you have problems you do not automatically reach for the strong chemical to try to control these things,” she explained.
But changing established planting patterns may not always be straightforward.
BAS President Henderson Williams said some farmers might continue producing particular crops because they already had buyers for them, while others could be constrained by limited access to land.
BAS President Henderson Williams (File photo)
“It may be a lack of knowledge. It may [also] be the fact that an individual has a market for a particular commodity, and wants to plant that commodity because they have a market for it,” he told Barbados TODAY.
With Barbados being a “land-scarce country”, farmers have varying levels of access to agricultural acreage, Williams noted.
But he maintained that crop rotation was still possible on smaller holdings, including by dividing plots into sections and alternating the crops grown in each area.
“So in those situations, if you have an acre for example, and you put half of an acre in one particular commodity and you put another commodity on the other half, then you could do the rotation across that lot.”
The BAS president also acknowledged that some farmers, particularly those entering agriculture, might not be fully familiar with recommended agricultural practices.
Training was available through the BAS, BADMC, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI) and the University of the West Indies, he said.
While recognising the risk posed by fungal diseases, Williams said he had not received reports indicating that infections were widespread among farmers.
He said fungal problems tended to increase during periods of heavy rainfall, particularly from September through December and sometimes into January, when wet conditions persisted.
But he could not identify specific districts with significant damage or provide figures on crop losses, saying BADMC and the Ministry of Agriculture were better positioned to provide that information.
On the assistance available to farmers, Williams said agricultural programmes provided technical guidance and, in some cases, inputs such as fertilisers and crop treatment products.
He acknowledged, however, that limited resources meant the assistance was not as widespread as needed.
Williams encouraged farmers to use agricultural extension services and available training to identify crop problems and adopt more effective management practices.
(SM)
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