Workshop participants learned to identify different banana diseases and were able to link scientific methods to their cultural practice of growing the crop, according to Northern Marianas College’s Cooperative Research Extension and Education Director Ross Manglona.
The workshop discussed ways to grow healthy bananas and market them, he said.
The farmers were also introduced to other varieties of bananas which they can try to grow and market on island.
But the farmers noted that they still lack water supply.
Lucy Norita Shilling, who grows banana on her farm, said that in order for them to produce healthy bananas, “we’ve got to have water.”
She said there is so much for the farmers to do in these trying times but many of them, especially those in Kagman, are frustrated due to the lack of water supply.
For those who run a private farm like her, water supply is very expensive, she added.
She believes it is more difficult for farmers who have to deal with the problematic irrigation system of Kagman.
In growing bananas, irrigation water is necessary whenever the amount of rainfall falls below 10 centimeters per month.
Municipal Council Vice Chairman Ray Blas Camacho, himself a farmer, said they learned a lot about technologies for growing bananas.
But lack of water remains the biggest issue for Saipan farmers, he added.
Aside from the water problem, banana production in the CNMI is also challenged by pests and diseases, weeds, soil infertility, poor or lack of planting materials, limited genetic diversity, natural disasters and seawater intrusion into basal water lens.
