Is There A Future For Bananas In St. Lucia?

If the answer to that question is in the affirmative, then who will revive the industry and when?

Can the industry recapture its glory days of the nineteen seventies? Can the same persons and the ignoramuses who destroyed the banana industry by their ‘no-cut’ strikes and anti-Compton rhetoric resuscitate bananas?

Whether we like it or not these questions must be answered truthfully by banana farmers and by interested persons. Tax payers have a right to know because a full recovery of the banana industry will require expenditures of scarce financial resources. Besides, new and exciting alternatives such as inland fish farming, cocoa and coffee production demand increasing attention and investments.

Investments in inland fishing and other agriculture have risen sharply in the last seven years and plans for further expansion are ongoing. Experts agree that bananas need further restructuring and consistent high expenditures if it is to survive the deadly Black Sigatoka disease – and prosper. Increasing cost of production and the continued presence of dubious characters of the past, pose additional challenges to the industry. The banana industry and agriculture generally, can no longer afford unscrupulous farmers who are a drain on hard-working producers.

In an attempt to discover answers to the burning question of banana recovery process, I visited the ROC (Taiwan) Technical Mission at Union Agriculture station and spoke to Vincent P. C. Yang, Project Manager of the Black Sigatoka Disease Prevention and Treatment Project (Taiwan) and Martin Satney his local counterpart. The project is being funded by ICDF (Taiwan) building on earlier efforts initiated by Winfresh and the Government of Saint Lucia. Following is a summarized report of the discussions.

Black Sigatoka disease hit the banana industry of Saint Lucia and the rest of the Windward Islands early in the twenty-first century. The former Government of Saint Lucia with assistance from Winfresh (formerly WINBAN, Windward Islands Banana Company) initiated control measures. A Black Sigatoka Management Unit was formed to focus attention on control and eradication. By April 2012 the Government of Saint Lucia had budgeted EC$5.4 million for continued control of the disease. In support of this programme the Government of ROC (Taiwan) provided EC$1.8million which was intended to help local efforts stabilize the situation and halt the spread of the disease. Even with these efforts, however, banana exports dropped to 6,500 tons in 2011 – a fraction of previous exports.

A second phase of control of the Black Sigatoka disease started in 2013 in which the Government of Taiwan contributed US$2million. Initially the project was frustrated by bureaucracy! Cheques for payments of crucial inputs had to be signed by both the Taiwan and Saint Lucia personnel. This administrative aspect of procurement was much too slow for the urgency of the moment. The key to success of any disease control in the science of plant pathology is timely availability. Thankfully, there has been a marked improvement in this regard. Another area of success has been consistent training of banana farmers in the control and management of Black Sigakota disease – a plant disease more deadly than the better known Yellow Sigatoka.

It is worthy of note that a ‘Core Farmers’ Programme’ which was initiated by Winfresh some ten years ago in order to rationalize and stabilize banana production on the island became a convenient vehicle for the control of the Black Sigatoka disease. At the time of its formation Winfresh donated seed money to farmers to help cut backs and to plan banana production so that higher yields and exports coincided with the time of higher market demand for bananas, in Europe. At its initiation the Winfresh programme had its fair share of critics as does any new initiative in an untrusting, cynical and semi-literate society.

Farmers who could not meet field sanitation and fruit quality demanded by the European market were lucky to discover a growing market for their fruit in the Caribbean. Some prospered by selling to the Caribbean market.

The Winfresh/initiative plus the efforts of succeeding governments and the direct involvement of the Government of ROC (Taiwan) have resulted in a fair measure of Black Sigatoka disease control and rationalization. This has in turn brought a measure of revival to the industry resulting in steady increases in production. Still, there are many doubting Thomases who believe that bananas – ‘green gold’ – will never return to its former glory.

There is little doubt in the minds of professional agriculturists that banana exports will not return to the days when a few bad eggs knowingly filled banana boxes with poor quality fruit, sometimes with illegal drugs such as cocaine. In the process of Black Sigatoka disease prevention and control the local coordinator of the programme (Satney) reports regularly and directly to the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture. The ROC (Taiwan) keeps his principals in Taiwan and Saint Lucia abreast of developments. An exciting offshoot of the Black Sigatoka Disease Management Project is the pursuit of alternative mixed cropping systems of farming as well as alternatives in general agriculture production systems.

The Black Sigatoka Disease Control Programme comes to an end in 2015. It is to be hoped that some independent agency or expert, not previously connected with the Black Sigatoka disease control in Saint Lucia will be assigned the task of evaluating the success of the programme. It is in the interest of the Government of Saint Lucia, Winfresh and Taiwan that such a study be undertaken and the three to pay for such a study. In the meantime, persistent calls for help in banana fields from STEP or NICE have not met with a ‘Thank You’ from the government. So far, not-a-word, not-a-word, not-a-word! Silence is the new normal for transparency and openness in government.