Pomeroon farmers estimate 75% decrease in coconut production

Jun 24, 2017 News

Farmers of both upper and lower Pomeroon River continue to report an even greater

Coconut palm is the third largest agricultural sub-sector in Guyana.

challenge in combating the red palm mite (RPM) insects. Red Palm Mites damage the leaves of the coconut palms, thus contributing to a decrease in yield and could lead to death of the mature and young trees.
NAREI emphasized that farmers need to maintain proper field sanitation to ensure the reduction of the pest. “The pest cannot be fully eliminated, but could be reduced. Good agricultural practices are required, and that is required from farmers,” said a NAREI official.
Coconut palm is the third largest agricultural sub-sector in Guyana. Farmers in the Pomeroon fear, however, that coconut may lose that third place ranking, since they estimate that there has been a 75% decrease in the production of coconuts in the Pomeroon.
However, such a decrease has not been recorded in any other part of the country.
Farming is the livelihood and the main source of income for at least 80 percent of the Pomeroon population.
“If we continue losing our crops, then eventually our livelihood would be completely destroyed.”
In the Pomeroon River there are approximately 10,000 acres under cultivation, with both three-year and five-year varieties. The commercial utilization of coconut involves mainly selling fresh water nuts, use of its milk for cooking and preparation of food, making copra and oil, making handicraft, and the exporting of dry hard nuts.
Farmers believe that the increased infestation of the RPM is due to a lack of proper quarantine on the part of the National Agricultural Research and Extension Institute (NAREI). Farmers claim that NAREI fails to conduct proper screening on coconut seeds entering the country.

NAREI advised farmers of good husbandry practices and farm management in order to maintain and increase dry nuts.

Representatives from NAREI said, however, that “the RPM is a pest that travels via air and is present in fields that are unsanitary. The pest was first observed on the island of Wakenaam and was quarantined.
It eventually spread to other coconut-producing areas in Essequibo, including the Pomeroon.
The RPM has no connection with the coconut palms that were imported from Mexico.
“In fact, it was only this year that permission was granted for the elite coconut palms to be imported to Guyana from Mexico, and as such, there is no relationship between the pest and the imported palms. Furthermore, NAREI would not allow infected palms to be imported to Guyana. They have to be screened before being allowed into the country,” an official said.
It was then realized that the demand and competition from buyers, poor farm husbandry practices and insect pest damage such as the Red Palm Mite, have led to a shortage of water coconut supply. NAREI recorded an increase in supply of 562,000 nuts in 2017 compared to 2015.
“This is a clear indication of demand more than supply which has led to scarcity and a misleading concept of a drop in production. Scarcity does not mean that there’s a decrease in the production of coconuts, it simply means that there is not enough to supply the market, since the demand has grown so extensively.”
On June 5, last, the Pomeroon Exporter Producers Association (PEPA) held a farmers meeting. One of the main issues raised by farmers was market availability for the expected rise in coconut production. They fear a glut and a drop in prices.
At present, some farmers complain that water nuts are being over mature (getting hard) on their trees since the main buyers are receiving sufficient supply. They are therefore calling on the bottling plants owners to increase their bottling capacity and set a fixed price for water nuts throughout the year.
The current low supply of dry nuts was also raised and farmers were advised on the importance of good husbandry practices and farm management in order to maintain and increase dry nuts production. They also called on the government to provide a market for other crops, since the large scale farmers are flooding the market.
Following a meeting with the Minister of Agriculture in 2015, it was decided that the Ministry of Agriculture, through NAREI, would provide chemical and other resources, and training, as a form of assistance.

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