Conference: Experience in Phytosanitary Certification of Healthy Plants in Central America. «The sole objective is to produce a certified pest-free plant»
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, June 2018 (IICA). Perelló Cultural Center, Baní – Dominican Republic. Being «Baní» the mango capital, the fourteenth 2018 Expo Mango Fair took place, with the aim to promote and to encourage the production, processing, marketing and consumption of Dominican mango, as well as exposing the diversity of varieties and technological innovations in this crop, for which different technical conferences were developed, with national and international specialists from Spain, Mexico and El Salvador.
Under the efforts of IICA and OIRSA, Ing. Xavier Euceda from OIRSA was invited to talk about the «Phytosanitary Certification Experience of a Healthy Plant in Central America», which was oriented to the need to organize and guide national producers in the production of healthy plants and the need to articulate a technical work team in the development of a regulation on the topic, which should contain aspects of biosecurity, isolation, registration of all activities, sampling and diagnosis of pathogens of interest, mobilization among others.
The most relevant suggestions discussed during the conference were:
• Maintain the confinement of new pests in each reported area.
• Reinforcement of official laboratories in new diagnostic techniques.
• Develop simulations, to know the reaction and roles of those involved in the chain.
• Update the action plans against the different pathogens, according to the conditions of the country.
• To be local spokespersons in our areas of influence (work or community), to generate knowledge to other producers or nurserymen about pests.
• The use of a healthy plant is essential and the country has the capacity to offer healthy and certified material.
Experience was also exchanged jointly with Taiwan ICDF in the advancement of the certification of healthy citrus plants, this crop having the greatest recovery in the generation and implementation of regulations that regulate and define phytosanitary procedures and requirements for the introduction, production, distribution and certification of healthy citrus plants in nurseries. At the end of the presentation, the participants, convinced of the need to implement a regulation on the subject, requested OIRSA, IICA and the Ministry of Agriculture to lead the formulation of a regulation, which must be socialized in the shortest possible time with the Mango Cluster. in the Dominican Republic.
It is worth mentioning that the Dominican Republic is among the top 20 mango exporting countries worldwide, generating revenues to the national economy of over US $ 20 million and positioning the country as one of the leaders in the Caribbean in this area.
«Currently the country places 17 million kilograms of mango in the five continents and seeks to increase exports through the strengthening of phytosanitary programs and increased productivity in the field,» said Minister of Agriculture Osmar Benítez during the press conference made to announce the Fair and said that currently about 100,000 tasks of fruit are sown.
More information: Gaudy Suzaña, Specialist in Agricultural Health and Food Safety, gaudy.suzaña@iica.int
