{"id":14752,"date":"2025-07-10T15:56:47","date_gmt":"2025-07-10T15:56:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/agriculture.gov.ag\/?p=14752"},"modified":"2025-07-11T14:49:58","modified_gmt":"2025-07-11T14:49:58","slug":"black-gold-rising-11000-antigua-black-pineapples-now-planted-at-cades-bay-by-brent-simon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agriculture.gov.ag\/index.php\/2025\/07\/10\/black-gold-rising-11000-antigua-black-pineapples-now-planted-at-cades-bay-by-brent-simon\/","title":{"rendered":"Black Gold Rising: 11,000 Antigua Black Pineapples Now Planted at Cades Bay by Brent Simon"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cades Bay, Antigua \u2013 July 10, 2025<\/p>\n

The revival of Antigua\u2019s national fruit has hit another milestone: Eleven thousand (11,000) disease-free Antigua Black pineapple clones are now planted in the soil at Cades Bay Agricultural Station.<\/p>\n

The final thousand (1,000) plantlets were planted today, completing the propagation phase under the Ministry of Agriculture\u2019s rehabilitation project is\u00a0 an IICA initiative, supported by CARDI, regional plant labs and other partners.<\/p>\n

Mr. Craig Thomas, IICA\u2019s Representative, stated that he was pleased with the progress made. \u201cIt\u2019s good to see this phase completed. But we\u2019re not out of the woods\u2014literally. Weed growth has been a persistent challenge,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Thomas wasn\u2019t alone in his concern. Mr. Bradbury Browne, a senior technician attached to the project, also raised red flags. \u201cWeeds are one issue, but just as urgent is the need for tighter control of nutrient feeding. These plants won\u2019t reach full potential unless we\u2019re precise with how they\u2019re fed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jahmal Ralph, Station Manager at Cades Bay, is now tasked with leading the team through the critical maintenance phase\u2014managing growth, monitoring plant health, and addressing field-level issues before distribution to farmers can begin later this year.<\/p>\n

Both Thomas and Browne agreed that field management needs tightening to protect the investment. The next few months will determine whether the groundwork laid so far translates into healthy crops and eventual island-wide planting.<\/p>\n

This effort to restore the Antigua Black pineapple\u2014renowned globally for its sweetness and cultural symbolism\u2014is the most comprehensive since its decline began decades ago. If successful, it will not only revive a heritage crop but reinvigorate local agriculture with export potential.<\/p>\n

\"May\u00a0 \u00a0\"May \u00a0\"May<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cades Bay, Antigua \u2013 July 10, 2025 The revival of Antigua\u2019s national fruit has hit another milestone: Eleven thousand (11,000) disease-free Antigua Black pineapple clones are now planted in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,20,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cardi","category-iica","category-news-notices"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/agriculture.gov.ag\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/agriculture.gov.ag\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/agriculture.gov.ag\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agriculture.gov.ag\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agriculture.gov.ag\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14752"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/agriculture.gov.ag\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14752\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14755,"href":"https:\/\/agriculture.gov.ag\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14752\/revisions\/14755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/agriculture.gov.ag\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agriculture.gov.ag\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agriculture.gov.ag\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}