Introduction of New Coconut Germplasm Tissue Culture-derived Plantlets: The Case of Saint Lucia

Andrea Veira, Govind Seepersad and Marnus Cherry

Farm and Business - The Journal of the Caribbean Agro-Economic Society, 2022, vol. 14, issue 01

Abstract: The international competitiveness of coconut farmers rests on the quantum of fruit juice produced per unit area, per unit time and on the cost of production. In order to compete on the beverage market of which St Lucia is a part, coconut germplasm was imported to increase farmers’ productivity. The country imported approximately 9,100 coconut tissue-culture derived plantlets from Mexico between 2016 and 2018 and undertook acclimatization and field establishment. This study looks at the technical guidelines for the transboundary movement of coconut-specific germplasm into St. Lucia and the experiences of field establishment. While it is still early to measure the effectiveness of this technological input into the industry, the study examines the application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Measures in the transboundary movement of the tissue culture-derived coconut plantlets and the shortfalls of these established regulations. There was a low rate of acclimatization and survival of the plantlets because of delays in trans-shipments at various ports, cargo transportation schedules and weaning and hardening protocol weaknesses. The study found need for improvement in St. Lucia’s SPS capabilities for the transboundary movement of coconut germplasm and coconut agronomy skills as well as alternative solutions of increasing availability of planting materials for coconut.

Keywords: Agribusiness; Agricultural and Food Policy; Crop Production/Industries (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/324066/files/F ... d%20%26%20Cherry.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:fabtho:324066

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.324066

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Farm and Business - The Journal of the Caribbean Agro-Economic Society from Caribbean Agro-Economic Society Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by AgEcon Search ().