Coconut Industry Board Prioritising Clean Planting Material to Sustain Sector

The Coconut Industry Board (CIB) is reaffirming its commitment to securing and maintaining clean planting material to support the sustainability of the coconut industry and mitigate the impact of lethal yellowing disease.

Given the disease’s severe impact on the sector, the Board has intensified its efforts to revive the industry, achieving a more than 70 per cent reduction in its presence among coconut plants islandwide.

Botanist and Plant Breeder at the CIB, Chantelle Campbell-McTaggart, emphasises that seed gardens are critical to the revitalisation process.

“Our seed garden is established in an isolated area that is free from both lethal yellowing disease and other potential coconut varieties that can contaminate. When I say contamination, I mean pollen from a different coconut can come and affect the pollination process. We have a very strict pollination process at our seed gardens which involves a very meticulous day-to-day inspection of the trees,” she told JIS News.

The Botanist explained that pollen processing is conducted at the Kingston facility, after which the pollen is transported to the seed gardens for the controlled pollination of other palms.

“We have to ensure that the seed gardens are in an isolated area, disease-free, and away from other coconut varieties… to ensure that we produce high-quality hybrids,” she points out.

According to the Jamaica Agricultural Commodities Regulatory Authority (JACRA), outbreaks of lethal yellowing disease over the past four decades have decimated most of the once-prevalent tall-type coconut cultivars in Jamaica.

While coconuts are the most economically significant palm affected by the disease, lethal yellowing also threatens 35 other species.

Symptoms of lethal yellowing disease include premature nut fall; blackening (necrosis) of the inflorescences, both male and female flowers; progressive yellowing or browning of the leaves; and, ultimately, the collapse of the canopy, leaving only the bare trunk.

Coconut growers are urged to support efforts to combat lethal yellowing disease by promptly cutting and burning infected trees at the first sign of symptoms.