On Monday, 20 May President Danilo Medina instructed a newly appointed Special Commission to counteract the spread of the virulent fungus known coffee leaf rust or roya. The fungus is known to spread due to a lack of preventive measures and the effects of climate change.
As climate change has brought warmer and wetter weather, roya has thrived, spreading to higher altitude coffee farms that used to be out of reach. While fungicides can help stop roya, most farmers eventually have to radically prune their trees, sacrificing harvests for years. Mass replanting has proven to be an alternate method.
President Medina has allocated RD$154 million to fighting the fungus that has already infected 58% of plantations, causing losses of around 100,000 quintals a year.
President Medina issued Decree 101-13 that declares that controlling roya in coffee areas is a national priority.
The newly created National Commission for the Comprehensive Management of the Coffee Roya will manage the funds. The members of the commission are Minister of Agriculture Luis Ramon Rodriguez and coffee sector representatives Rafael Perello, Jose Antonio Martinez, Jesus Portela and Jose Nunez Fermin.
In a press conference at the Presidential Palace yesterday, Monday 20 May Minister Rodriguez said that 58% of the 2.2 million tareas where coffee is cultivated nationwide are infected, 42% in the south and 16% in the north.
The funds will be used for seeds of roya resistant plants to replace 10 million coffee plants. Minister Rodriguez said that the results of the initiative would begin to be felt in 2015.
www.7dias.com.do/index.php/noticias/140996/Presidente_Medina_dispone_la_entrega_de_154_millones_de_pesos_para_combatir_la_roya#.UZpsl6WRPzI