Coconut Sector Benefits From Transformative Work of CIB

The Coconut Industry Board (CIB) celebrates 80 years of operation this month, having made critical contributions in Research and Development to the benefit of the  coconut sector.

Established by the Coconut Industry Control Act of 1945, the CIB is responsible for monitoring and informing the Government on the state of the coconut industry, advising growers of agronomic best practices and providing quality planting materials.

Director of Research and Development at the CIB, Dr. Wayne Myrie, told JIS News that transformative work was done to manage threats to the sector and mitigate lethal yellowing disease in Jamaica, with the disease seeing a 75 per cent decline, to date.

“I would say the control of lethal yellowing disease is a major achievement for the CIB. If you don’t have coconuts on the tree because they are dying, you don’t have an industry,” he said.

Dr. Myrie was speaking at a Jamaica Information Service (JIS) Think Tank, today (June 19), at the agency’s Television Department in Kingston.

The coconut sector now produces 126 to 127 million nuts annually, from four million trees across the island.

Regarding other threats, rat bait has been developed in response to farmers’ challenge with the pest in the field.

“The other achievements would be the discoveries made. We have discovered some vectors, including the oecleus macka springi, which has been identified as the potential vector that transmits lethal yellowing disease. We have also found aplexuses (another kind of vector) in Jamaica – aplexus fornicus – which are not found anywhere else in the world,” Dr. Myrie said.

He pointed out that the Board has also done extensive work in plant breeding since the early 1970s, to develop resilience in the sector.

“We established the Maypan hybrid in 1974, which was released to the public for production. The development of the Maypan was major because there was no other country in the world that was producing commercial crosses. The Coconut Industry Board out of Jamaica was the first to produce this commercial cross, which we gave to the world. It was monumental at the time,” Dr. Myrie said.

In addition to work done to lend technical support and material resources to farmers and other stakeholders, the Board has also established key partnerships that have attracted international accolades.

In 2023, the Alligator Head Foundation and Coconut Industry Board received the Small Island Developing States (SIDs) Partnership Environmental Award.

“This was important to us because it shows good collaboration that deals with environmental issues, by way of fish sanctuaries and tying what happens on the ridges to what happens in the coastal areas. With overfertilisation and cutting down trees from the ridges, you are actually affecting what happens in the sea,” Dr. Myrie said.

“It was an important partnership for us to mitigate nitrate problems that would cause the dying off of coral reefs in Jamaica in the coastal areas. With that collaboration we were able to succeed in getting this award,” he added.

The Boards’ 80^th Anniversary celebrations have, so far, seen a series of townhalls being held across the island, with future activities to lead up to World Coconut Day to be observed early September.

For more information on the work of the CIB, persons can visit coconutindustryboard.org/.