The Ministry of Agriculture began construction work on the first of ten thermal cameras that will be installed in the country for the production of high-quality banana planting material, with the aim of increasing the production of this fruit and guaranteeing the country’s food safety. This project is being carried out with the collaboration of the Dominican Institute of Agricultural and Forestry Research (IDIAF).
The initiative will help the country increase its production of high-quality seedlings and their resistance to pests. The project also includes the establishment and maintenance of germplasm multiplication fields in the country’s eight agriculture regions.
According to a press release from the Ministry, each of the thermal cameras will have 4,800 m² of nurseries.
The project also includes training 80 technicians and 3,500 producers in clonal selection methodology and in micropropagation of banana corms in a thermal camera, through ten theoretical-practical workshops.
The vice-ministers of Agricultural Production, Faruk Garib Arbaje, and of Agricultural Sector Planning, and Jose Paulino, representing Minister Limber Cruz, attended the groundbreaking ceremony of the work, which has a budget of nearly 168 million pesos and will be executed in four years. The event was also attended by the representative of the Directorate of Public Investment of the Ministry of Economy, Jose Rafael Jimenez.
Source: elcaribe.com.do