A new path forward

01.FEB.08

EDITOR: I would just like to say to my friend Renwick Rose that I support him in his fight for the banana industry in SVG, and that I agree with his article.

In the French West Indies, we are also fighting for the survival of our banana industry that has also fallen down during these last years from approximately 5000 ha to 2000 ha now (approximately 4400 acres).{{more}}

We certainly get more funds than you from the EU or France, but we know that it is not easy. The European Commission, for example, refuses to subsidise soil analysis, saying that it should be a normal practice, when, at the same time, it asks us to practice “clean agriculture”.

However, I am a technician, and I wonder if we cannot find some ways of technical cooperation through the Conseil Régional de Guadeloupe (the Local Government in some ways, which has funds for cooperation). And why not a co-operation programme in this sector of agronomy and good fertilizing practices which are asking sometimes to do soil analysis.

Fertilizer costs are going to increase a lot and it’s time to rationalize their use and use other available resources such as compost or even waste residue once they (and the soil) have been analysed (micro polluting elements such as cadmium, iron, Hg, Cu, etc).

All the best

Dominique DAVID
Guadeloupe
caribagro@orange.fr