30 years dedicated to coconut cultivation
Published:Thursday | February 23, 2012 | 12:00 AM
MORANT BAY, St Thomas:
IF HE ever gets to documenting even just a portion of his vast expertise, Michael Black would not only rewrite the manual on coconut cultivation but add some new chapters as well. The impact of his hands-on experience garnered over more than 30 years in the field was recognised in 2010 when he was awarded the Badge of Honour for Meritorious Service to agriculture in general and the coconut industry in particular.
The sense of pride at this achievement was shared by the Coconut Industry Board (CIB) with which he had collaborated over the years, and which had long recognised his seminal work in coconut cultivation.
"Mr Black developed and instituted a system to minimise the devastating effects of the dreaded lethal yellowing disease, the most destructive coconut disease. The Coconut Industry Board has been recommending this system to all coconut farmers," the board acknowledged in congratulating Black.
Dr Wayne Myrie, plant pathologist with the CIB, this year emphasised the value of Black's contribution to coconut cultivation at the global level. "We have looked at how to stem the spread of this disease and we have been embarking on a programme to remove the infected trees from the field immediately, to burn those trees and plant another tree in the place of that one, and also to do proper control practices," he told a Jamaica House press briefing. "We call that the Black Approach, because the first person to start this approach is Michael Black in St Thomas."
Saluting hard work
This tribute comes in the wake of more than 30 years of hard work, dogged determination, attention to detail and an unrivalled and inexplicable love affair with coconuts by the former livestock farmer, who still has a strong hand in coffee cultivation and processing. However, the path to controlling lethal yellowing was logically simple for Michael Black.
There is no known cure for lethal yellowing, which is caused by a phytoplasma known to be carried by flying plant hopper which feeds on palm sap. Fighting the bacterium is made all the more difficult by the fact that it has no cell wall, cannot be cultured and has a small genome size.
He didn't know that then, but Michael Black adopted a strategythat had worked well in livestock - sanitisation by fire.
He recalls: "I said to myself, people live with cancer and if I have a coconut cancer I going to live with it, so I cut and burn and I've been doing this cut and burn since. My experience with livestock showed me that once an animal was infected with disease cleanliness was key to preventing its spread, so I said to myself, let me disinfect this area.
"How do I disinfect it best of all? Cut it and burn it. So I heap it and burn it. So once that was instilled in the workers we then used this system to control lethal yellowing. I am here to tell you that lethal yellowing is a non-entity on this farm. We have about 62,000 trees on this farm and we are able to keep and maintain this 62,000, and I will let you know that every one we cut, within two days I plant another one so the population doesn't go down."
Aware of the potential threat and need to stay on top of the lethal yellowing situation, Michael and son, Stephen, who now handles more of the day-to-day operation, are an ever vigilant and two-man felling team, armed with chainsaws, patrolling different sections of the 685-acre property every day. Their sole purpose is to identity and cut down any trees with the disease.
educating his staff
Whatever their diverse backgrounds and job description, the more than 100 workers on this Nutts River property are aware of the threat to their livelihood from lethal yellowing, thanks to Michael.
When he acquired the property more than 30 years ago, lethal yellowing was in full swing and he took the decision to push down all the trees, as the Jamaican Tall proved especially susceptible.
Some 62 trees were infected in 2002, moving to 92 in 2003 and 113 the following year. By 2005 it went to 124, spiking at 138 in 2006, falling to 122 the following year and jumping to 196 by 2008, dropping to 53 in 2009. The integrated approach seems to be paying dividends, and the Black Approach perfected on a farm in Nutts River, St Thomas, is being duplicated on a global level.