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262 farmers attend first 3 Soursop Workshops conducted by Brazilian expert Dr Abel Reboucas

Posted: Wednesday, March 1, 2023. 11:17 am CST.

Photo Credit: MAFSE

By Rubén Morales Iglesias: Farmers are showing a lot of interest in the soursop cultivation workshops being conducted by Brazilian agronomist Dr Abel Reboucas. So far, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security, and Enterprise (MAFSE) has reported that the first three of four soursop workshops have attracted 262 people.

One hundred twenty people are attending the third workshop being conducted today, Wednesday, March 1, in Trinidad in the Orange Walk District. Fifty-two persons attended Tuesday’s training session for Stann Creek farmers held at the Citrus Products of Belize Limited (CPBL) in the Pomona Valley. The previous day, 90 Cayo District farmers were present for the first training session at Central Farm in the Cayo District.

A fourth workshop is scheduled for San Pedro Columbia in the Toledo District on Thursday, March 2.

MAFSE said these training workshops, comprising both theory and practical aspects of soursop cultivation, are an integral part of the Agriculture Ministry’s push to develop the soursop industry.

According to MAFSE’s National Coordinator for Non-Traditional Fruit Trees Barry Palacio, at present Belize has 400 acres of soursop, but by the looks of the number of people attending the workshops this week and those attending last year October when Dr Reboucas first came to Belize, that number should be on the uprise.

Dr Reboucas was brought in by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to assist the Ministry of Agriculture on its program for Belizean farmers to move away from one-crop farming. With the help of organizations such as the FAO, MAFSE is pushing crops like soursop, coconuts, and pitahaya.

The soursop training falls under the Sustainable Development of Resilient Value Chains – Implementation of CARICOM COVID-19 Agri-food Recovery Plan signed in October of 2020. MAFSE said the Agri-food Recovery Plan is a regional project involving Belize, Dominica, Guyana and St. Lucia that seeks to address gaps, tactics and process capability of ministry staff to select and develop high potential national value chains and also to focus on one selected value chain per country.”

Though Dr Reboucas has been concentrating specifically on soursop training, his specializations in tropical fruits include citrus, mangos, passion fruit, papaya, avocado, and coconuts.

But Dr Reboucas’ training is not the only soursop training MAFSE has been conducting. With the assistance of Mexico’s National Institute for Forestry, Agricultural and Livestock Research (INIFAP), last November the Agriculture Ministry conducted training on soursop and pitahaya (dragon fruit) cultivation for farmers from the Orange Walk and Corozal.

 

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