The Dominican Republic is joining the Central American Program for Comprehensive Management of Coffee Leaf Rust (Procagica), coordinated by the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) with funding support from the European Union to combat the coffee leaf rust in Central America and the Dominican Republic. The program was presented in Guatemala during the II Regional Coffee Leaf Rust Summit.
The project leader is IICA associate director for technical cooperation Muhammad Akbar Ibrahim.
The initiative will be implemented over the next five years and is expected to benefit 330,000 coffee-growing families in the region.
It is estimated that between 2012 and 2013, 2.7 million bags of coffee were completely lost to coffee leaf rust in Central America and the Dominican Republic, representing 20% of the total coffee production. The situation has had a significant socio-economic impact on the region.
Through the implementation of the Central American Program for Comprehensive Management of Coffee Leaf Rust, the region also seeks to prevent similar situations from occurring in the future.
http://www.iica.int/en/press/news/iica-launches-program-combat-coffee-leaf-rust-central-america-and-dominican-republic
