Jose Fermin Nunez, the executive director of the Dominican Coffee Council (Codocafe), has announced that they have started renewing 300,000 tareas (1 tarea= 628.86 square meters) that had been planted with coffee in the south of the country, in order to ensure that the land can be reused for coffee, which is disease-free, with increased production, leading to increased income for the workers in the area.
Fermin Nunez said that specialists are already working on replanting coffee in Barahona to ensure it was free of the blight that had badly affected the previous coffee plantations, as part of the Emergency Sanitary Program set up by Minister of Agriculture Luis Ramon Rodriguez, as reported in El Dia.
He highlighted that this initiative could help manage the coffee blight that has affected the provinces of San Cristobal, San Jose de Ocoa, Azua, Barahona, Bahoruco, Independencia and Pedernales.
He said that they would continue to monitor the plantations and assist with efficient agricultural management with measures that include controlling the density of the planting, adequate shade, pruning, weed control, balanced fertilizers and chemical pest control.
He said that there were 625 brigades of workers on the project with 10 members each, working for a period of 80 days.