Pilot Shows Promise as Belize Fights Sugarcane Fusarium Crisis

The sugar industry’s been hit hard by the fusarium outbreak, but there’s a glimmer of hope. The Government of Belize stepped in with a half-a-million-dollar pilot project, applying fungicide across two thousand acres of sugarcane fields. And now, that project is in its final phase. According to Agriculture Minister Jose Abelardo Mai, the results look promising.

 

Jose Abelardo Mai, Minister of Agriculture

“This is mimicking what Mexico is doing, learning from the experts, Brazilian and Costa Rican experts managing fusarium. Our experts have been to Mexico twice to look at what they are doing with the level of infection they have and try to make a combination of cocktail of how to manage it. We took that five hundred thousand dollars and say the farmers will put one third and say they will put two thirds. We started that pilot project, it is supposed to do two thousand one hundred and fifty acres. That should be completed by the end of this week. By the thirty-first of August, we are supposed to be completed by the end of this week. We have the first application of fungicide. I want to be very careful. We have people out there advertising the use of certain chemicals to use to control fusarium. You must understand that if you are going to recommend a fungicide it has to be registered in the country. You don’t listen to somebody that come from abroad and say use this. These chemicals might be registered in that country, but not here. Secondly, Belize enjoy Fairtrade status. Under Fairtrade there are chemical classifications, some that are completely prohibited.”