Fruit Tree Disease Strikes ASEAN Countries, Guangxi Sends Agricultural Experts for Aid for the First Time
China News Service, Nanning, April 21 (Reporter Meng Mingming) The Guangxi Department of Agriculture revealed on April 21 that at the request of Cambodia's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Guangxi will dispatch agricultural experts to Cambodia for technical assistance to help local efforts to prevent and control increasingly severe fruit tree pests and diseases. It is reported that this is the first time Guangxi has dispatched experts to an ASEAN country for technical assistance.
According to Huang Wenxing, Director of the Foreign Economic Cooperation Division of the Guangxi Department of Agriculture, orange trees, the main source of income for Cambodian farmers, have been attacked by an unidentified pathogen in recent years, with large mold spots growing on the trunks and large-scale withering occurring. Due to a lack of professional knowledge and facilities, the efforts of local agricultural experts to prevent and control the orange tree disease all ended in failure, and Cambodia's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries requested assistance from Guangxi.
After receiving the letter requesting assistance, Guangxi officials attached great importance to it and decided to dispatch on the 25th of this month an agricultural expert team headed by Bai Xianjin, Chief Agronomist of the Guangxi Department of Agriculture, to Cambodia for technical assistance to help diagnose the fruit tree disease locally.
Lan Huiyan, Executive Director of Guangxi Fuwo De Agricultural Technology International Cooperation Co., Ltd., the coordinating unit for this assistance project, introduced that in Cambodia, the output value of orange trees per hectare reaches 1,500 US dollars. Due to relatively high profits and market demand, local farmers have long regarded orange cultivation as their main source of income.
“However, Cambodia's orange production is now on the verge of collapse. Orange trees infected with this strange pathogen generally wither and die within 3 years. The large-scale spread of the disease has forced local farmers to abandon orange cultivation.” said Lan Huiyan, who previously brought back the letter requesting assistance from Cambodia's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.
It is reported that in Cambodia's Battambang Province, where oranges are an economic symbol, 2/3 of the orange trees have already become diseased and died, and most of the remaining 1,760 hectares of orange trees are also infected with the pathogen, while more than 10,000 hectares of orange orchards nationwide are infected. (End)