Plantain production is the same as it was ten years ago, but it is forecast that each Dominican will eat 11.6 plantains less than last year, according to a report in Diario Libre. Higher costs for fertilizers, new diseases and higher production costs have reduced production. The lack of business and institutional incentives has furthermore contributed to the problem. As most readers know, plantains are the only food that most Dominicans will eat three times a day with pleasure. From 1994 to 2003 plantain production ranged between 1.1 billion units and 1.3 billion units per year. This year, however, production estimates coming from the Plantain and Tubercular Committee of the Dominican Agro-Business Board (JAD) put production at 1.2 billion units, or 93 million less than 2003. Particio Hernandez, the head of the JAD committee, said that production had been weakened by the appearance of the Black Sigatoka virus that encountered ripe conditions for its spread during the very rainy first months of the year. A preliminary report for the Ministry of Agriculture says that 83,162 tareas (13,860 acres) were affected by precipitation in May alone, causing reported losses of RD$520 million. Hernandez told the Diario Libre that better control of the Black Sigatoka with the introduction of different varieties of plantains would certainly help solve the problem. Another suggestion was to increase the number of plants per acre in order to combat the rising costs.