Guatemalans tour South Texas in search of plant diseases
Pathogen ID techniques to benefit farmers back home
Contact(s): Dr. Tom Isakeit, 979-862-1340, TIsakeit@tamu.edu
Dr. Ron French, 806-677-5600, RDFrench@ag.tamu.edu
“Let’s take a look at this,” said Dr. Tom Isakeit, one of two Texas AgriLife Extension Service plant pathologists leading the tour designed to teach the Guatemalans how to diagnose plant diseases.
Immediately, the group descended on the wilted patch. Isakeit and his colleague, Dr. Ron French, guided their guests through the proper procedures of identifying pathogens that attack crops.
The Guatemalans were touring the Rio Grande Valley as part of an effort by the Norman Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture at College Station to improve agriculture in more than 100 countries around the world.
The Food for Progress Project in Guatemala is one of 11 major projects in which the institute is helping native people live better by increasing food production.
The Guatemalans in McAllen are university educated agronomists who will return to their country to share their newfound knowledge with indigenous farmers, they said.
“Most farmers in Guatemala consume what they grow,” said one of the visitors, Sergio Noriega. “Subsistence is fine, but this program helps us increase production and market what we grow, which improves our quality of life.”
Among its many efforts, Food for Progress, funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, has twice sent Isakeit to Guatemala to provide hands-on plant disease training. French has gone once.
“Growers traveled for hours to come to our workshops,” Isakeit said of his visit. “There’s a huge thirst for knowledge there. They are very appreciative of the knowledge we’re sharing.”
In the McAllen watermelon patch, the Guatemalans carefully followed their hosts’ instructions on how to approach diseased plants.
The steps included observation of diseased field patterns, digging the soil to check for root rot and cutting the lower stem of the plant to check for vascular discoloration and fungi, Isakeit said.
“Until we get samples into the lab, we don’t know what this is,” said Isakeit, who is also a professor in the department of plant pathology and microbiology at Texas A&M University.
His colleague, French, is a Spanish-speaking plant pathologist with AgriLife Extension in Amarillo.
“The extension system in Guatemala that transfers agricultural information from the universities to farmers has been drastically reduced thanks to a faltering economy,” French said. “This program helps fill a huge void by training indigenous farmers, many of who are Maya or Chimantenayo and may be illiterate or speak only their dialect, not Spanish.”
The visit to the Rio Grande Valley was timed to also expose the Guatemalans to the different crops and agricultural practices here.
“The Valley was the logical choice for this tour because of the diversity of crops in a relatively small area,” Isakeit said. “And this time of year was chosen because there’s an overlapping of winter and spring crops and the best conditions for finding disease.”
Carlos Xovin, who lives near the capital of Guatemala, said growers in his country tend to flood the market with like products.
“That decreases prices to the farmer,” he said. “But our farming methods have been handed down from generation to generation, so it’s important that we learn about marketing and new technologies to introduce them to our producers.”
Rudy Navichoc, another visitor, said the Guatemalan government may teach growers how to increase production, but it doesn’t teach better marketing methods.
“We’ve learned about the value-added principle,” he said. “In fact, my wife is now using the vegetables we grow to bottle and market salsas.”
Estuardo Arroyave, who has also visited other parts of Texas, said he was amazed by the Valley’s agricultural productivity and the friendliness of the people in South Texas.
“Other parts of Texas produce only one or two crops,” he said. “But not here. We are also very impressed with the greenhouse technology used here. In many cases it’s simple technology that can easily be applied in Guatemala.”
Since 2005, tens of thousands of Guatemalan farmers have been able to increase their income and improve their quality of life, thanks to this project, French said.
“Our four guests will help even more farmers, thanks to what they’ve learned here this week,” he said. “And they are very appreciative of the opportunity.”
For more information on the Food for Progress project and the Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture, go to http://borlaug.tamu.edu .
