'Spicing up' Clarendon - the ginger project would be introduced to tissue

Tag : ginger
A move is afoot to have the planting of ginger in the Spaldingsarea revived. According to Member of Parliament for North WestClarendon, Michael Stern, who is spearheading the initiative, areassuch as Moravia, Silent Hill, Top Alston and adjoining communitieswere well known for producing ginger on a large scale.
However, the MP went on to explain,a disease which causes the rootof the plant to rot in the field has caused a downturn inproduction in recent years.
Stern also pointed to ginger projects that had already begun therevival process. The town of Moravia is one such and it has alreadyreceived $800,000 from the European Union for traditional andgreenhouse production of the plant.
One million dollars out of Stern's constituency development fundhas also been earmarked for the project, which he said wouldinvolve close to a thousand farmers.
Future hopes
"This is being done because we want this constituency to once morereturn to the days when it was the ginger-producing constituency inJamaica," said Stern.
To fight the resurgence of the root rot disease, Stern said the ginger project would also be introduced to tissue culture so allinterested farmers could acquire clean plants.
Stern also made sure to mention that greenhouse farming was anintegral part of the revival and that the process of getting it toproduction level would be done in two phases, though the procedurewas largely experimental at this point. Ginger has never beenplanted in greenhouses before and would have to be done in bags.
In phase two of the ginger project, experiments will be carried outto see whether or not the crop can be dried using solar technology.This aspect of the project, Stern explained, would be done with theassistance of personnel from India.
Expectations
"What we are looking at is that each farmer involved in the projectwill get cheap and clean planting material. We are also going toask the Ministry of Agriculture to have an expert assigned to theproject to help guide it, so that it will be a success," saidStern.
Stern said at the moment ginger was being imported into the countrybecause of the shortage being experienced; and therefore the aim ofthe project was to reverse the trend.
- George Henry

Ginger