{"id":4085,"date":"2022-10-07T23:57:06","date_gmt":"2022-10-07T23:57:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/agriculture.gov.ag\/?p=4085"},"modified":"2022-10-08T00:01:08","modified_gmt":"2022-10-08T00:01:08","slug":"the-antigua-and-barbuda-coconut-rehabilitation-programme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agriculture.gov.ag\/index.php\/2022\/10\/07\/the-antigua-and-barbuda-coconut-rehabilitation-programme\/","title":{"rendered":"THE ANTIGUA and BARBUDA COCONUT REHABILITATION PROGRAMME"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Thursday 29th<\/sup> September, the Forestry Division within the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Barbuda Affairs launched and began the distribution stage of the Coconut (Cocos nucifera<\/em>)\u00a0Rehabilitation project. The modality of this Initiative is a simple yet novel exercise which promises great national yield pending the participants’ full cooperation.\u00a0 After registration and site inspections there are three phases:<\/p>\n

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  1. Interested businesses and participating farmers through this initiative will be given coconut trees by the Forestry Division, the quantity will be based on the size of the farms and or space available for these trees;<\/li>\n
  2. A contractual agreement would be signed by the farmers before receiving the plants;<\/li>\n
  3. One and a half years thereafter, from each tree ten (10) coconuts must be given back annually.\u00a0 This arrangement will support the continuation and furtherance of the project.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Thus far, the seven (7) participants (five males and two females) are:<\/p>\n

    Odessa Hopkins<\/strong> is an entrepreneur and plant farmer.\u00a0 Ms Hopkins was the first female farmer who showed keen interest in this project and was the recipient of thirty (30) trees to be planted on her two acres of farmland.<\/p>\n

    \u00a0<\/strong>Jamie Carty<\/strong> is a police officer and fruit tree farmer in the southern section of the island. He received ten (10) in this first instalment.<\/p>\n

    \u00a0<\/strong>Neil Gomes<\/strong>, the first male who showed tremendous interest and then spread the word, encouraged another farmer Gregg Skepple<\/strong> to participate, both plant farmers located in the north were recipients of fifty (50) trees.<\/p>\n

    \u00a0<\/strong>Casey Roberts<\/strong> is the second female farmer and her two acres farm is located in the east.\u00a0 She too collected thirty (30) trees.<\/p>\n

    \u00a0<\/strong>Brian Benjamin<\/strong>, a retired tourism tour guide and presently owns and operates a large farm with the assistance of his five children started a coconut plantation that received one hundred (100) trees. Additionally, Casmore Joseph<\/strong>, who is a mixed farmer and beekeeper also received one hundred (100) trees.<\/p>\n

    The coconut seeds were imported from Costa Rica.\u00a0 According to Adriel Thibou (Senior Forestry Officer)\u201d The program involves the procurement, propagation, and distribution of approximately 15,000 coconut seedlings. To date, no coconut variety has proven to be completely resistant to Lethal yellowing however two stand out as being more resilient than others. From research done in Jamaica, a variety of the Malayan dwarf has shown to be 96% resistant. The program will first seek to replant coconut trees along the beaches and agricultural byroads. Sixty-four participants have signed up for the program and an additional twelve hotels and private homeowners as well. The novel approach to sustainability is being monitored to hopefully replicate in neighbouring islands by CARDI and other stakeholders\u201d.<\/p>\n

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    On Thursday 29th September, the Forestry Division within the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Barbuda Affairs launched and began the distribution stage of the Coconut (Cocos nucifera)\u00a0Rehabilitation project. The modality […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-notices"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/agriculture.gov.ag\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4085","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=4085"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/agriculture.gov.ag\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4085\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4127,"href":"https:\/\/agriculture.gov.ag\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4085\/revisions\/4127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/agriculture.gov.ag\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agriculture.gov.ag\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agriculture.gov.ag\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}