In 2012, the citrus greening disease rapidly infested the Guadeloupe Island, killing lemon, orange and other citrus trees. As it seemed complicated to eradicate the disease completely, new cultural practices to preserve production and coping with the citrus greening have been developed.

In response to the citrus greening disease, eradication and diversification solutions have been developed to help farmers preserve their production.

Solutions of Eradication

The eradication plan consists of launching a healthy and certified citrus seedling industry, a large scale rootstock production, and a large scale healthy graft production.

The first steps have already been taken and the progress will be continuously evaluated and improved. In addition, the specifications for a healthy seedling production will be disseminated, as well as a “replanting guide” for citrus producers and information leaflets about the disease for citrus producers and local authorities.

Specific local citrus varieties will be identified and conserved, and a “citrus greening monitoring network” involving all stakeholders of the sector and including specific technical committees will be established throughout Guadeloupe.

However, the planned activities need to be accompanied also by sanitation of the entire Island via uprooting of all infected citrus plants. This is still a big challenge.

“What would be almost urgent would be to clean up whole Guadeloupe, or at least around 70 %, to be able to launch anew a healthy citrus sector.” (Frédéric Bourseau – President of Assofwi, the association of fruit producers)

Solutions of Diversification

The sanitary crisis has triggered a diversification trend in the farming community towards growing other local crops such as Pitaya and Teak, which are sold at higher prices on the Guadeloupian market.

“The difficulty after this disease, it is to rehabilitate these 24 hectares because it takes time. However it has been necessary to diversify between a few fruit trees, and other vegetable gardening that have a high added-value on the local market, in transition with the revival of the citrus production.” (Jean-Marc PETIT – Farmer)

The complementary strategy consisting of growing other local crops with an economic added-value on the local market has helped the farmers to diversify their own production and to face the citrus crisis without losing their entire production, thus enabling them to maintain a minimum level of income during the execution of the eradication plan.

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