Mango consultant, Mr. Victor Avah believes that controlling the Bacterial Black Spot disease (BBS) disease rather than attempting to eradicate it is a more realistic approach towards dealing with the current onslaught.
Mr. Avah who made the call therefore admonished mango farmers affected by the Bacterial Black Spot disease (BBS) to rather concentrate on controlling the disease instead of attempting to eradicate it.
He noted that the BBS is more dangerous than anthracnose said farmers should channel their focus towards controlling the since eradicating it is beyond their capacity.
Mango farmers in the country including the mango growing enclave of Shai Osudoku, Manya Krobo And Yilo Krobo have launched an appeal to the Ministry of Food and Agriculture and the key stakeholders in the sector to help them find a solution to the onslaught of the Bacterial Black Spot disease (BBS) which is posing a lot of threats to mango cultivation in the country.
Their concern arises out of the heavy losses they continue to suffer after investing huge sums of money into the mango business as a result of the devastation.
The farmers have thus called for an appeal for urgent action to help stop the spread of the disease on their crops, as it is ravaging farms, killing trees and destroying yet-to-mature fruits.
According to the agric consultant, good agricultural policies are important in the fight against the disease which forms black spots in the leaves of the affected plants.
He said contrary to the perception that the disease surfaced only a few years ago, it was actually first identified in Somanya ten years ago. “A friend of mine who was a consultant detected the bacterial black spot in the Somanya area more than 10 years ago, but actually he didn’t even know that it was bacterial black spot,” Mr. Avah disclosed. “He showed me the picture of the farm and the farm owner where he took the picture. So bacterial black spot was detected a very long time ago at its very early stages.”
The mango consultant expressed concern over bad farm practices which he said accounted for the spread of the disease.
“How did we get through to this? It is just farm management. Good agricultural practices and appropriate farm management, if both is applied can be easily controlled practices if well applied can be easily controlled,” Mr. Avah underscored.
Mr. Avah who blamed the continuous spread of the canker on poor managerial skills said farmers through ignorance of the implications of the disease unknowingly carried the BBS infected mangoes from one farm to the other which has contributed to the spread of the disease.
He also noted that some farmers spread the disease through their farm outfit which they wore from one farm to the other especially during rainy days and called on farmers to improve on their farm sanitation to curb the spread of the disease.
The disease is said to be spreading in the Yilo Krobo municipality, Lower Manya Krobo municipality, Shai Osudoku and other sectors of the southern zone. The disease is also said to be devastating mango-growing areas in the Brong Ahafo Region.
Several hectares of mango plantations in the affected areas have come under attack from the disease.
The situation compelled a workshop organized by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in partnership with the Soil and Research Center of the University of Ghana on Tuesday, December 5, 2018 at Somanya for mango farmers to be trained on how to identify affected mango plants and adopt best farming practices to avoid a further spread of the disease.
Source: Nana Ama Sarfo/ritefmonline.org/amasarfo297@gmail.com
