August 22 2007

Barbados still struggling to make cotton farming viable

Chief Agricultural Officer, Barton Clarke says that the Pink bollworm remains the major threat to the Barbados cotton industry, reducing yields by 50 percent in some cases.

Speaking during a training session yesterday for cotton farmers and project workers, agricultural officers, and entomologists on the topic of pest identification and control, Mr. Clarke said Barbados’ target continues to be 1,200 pounds per acre of sea island cotton, which would convert to 400 pounds of lint per acre. However, that goal has not been achieved in recent times.

Addressing the opening of the workshop, Mr. Clarke said while farmers were able to do “a fairly good job” of getting the crop established last year, it “plummeted” during the months of December and January, due to what he termed “the maximum expression of the pests at a time when our diligence was at its lowest ebb”.

Barbados, he said, needed to manage its cotton production more efficiently at the most critical stage, and if it could demonstrate to the world that it can produce cotton without using pesticides, the value of the industry would increase significantly.
Mr. Clarke therefore promised participants that during the course of the cotton crop more workshops would be held to keep them abreast of what was needed to keep the pests’ damage to a minimum.

Pointing out that the overarching plan was to convert cotton from an industry that now produced a small amount of lint to one which produced final products, Mr. Clarke said it was clear that even at US$10 per pound Barbados’ sea island cotton industry “cannot be competitive in the global market”, since most of the money to be made was at the retail end of the industry.

Sea Island Cotton has the longest staple of any cotton, giving it a feel that is even more luxurious than Egyptian cotton. The West Indian Sea Island Cotton or WISICA brand is acknowledged to be the world’s premier brand and much of Barbados’ hopes for local agriculture rest on its long staples.

The Integrated Pest Management programme for cotton, spearheaded by entomologist, Dr. Yelitza Edwards, is designed to introduce members of the cotton farming community to the various pests which are wreaking havoc on their crops, as well as at those pests’ natural enemies, which can be used to control them.

According to Dr. Edwards, farmers often kill insects which are the natural enemies of the pests themselves through the over-use of pesticides. The Entomology Unit wants more farmers to be able to identify the different pests themselves and thus decide on the correct level of pesticide application.

Dr. Edwards said a simple field manual with pictures had been produced for farmers to better allow them to identify the major threats to the cotton industry, including the Pink bollworm, the Cotton bollworm and the Thrips, which have been causing major damage.

The IPM programme, which was started late last year, is being carried out in collaboration with a scientific team from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), and is said to be the most extensive one to be undertaken within the sector.

As one of the few producers of genuine sea island cotton in the world, Barbados could earn a lot of foreign exchange if it can significantly increase its cotton production first, then become more involved in producing final cotton products for global markets, but the obstacles placed in the way have so far proven virtually insurmountable.

Source: Broad Street Journal