Speaking during the Saipan Rotary Club meeting at the Hyatt last week, Quintanilla said a new pest has been discovered from some of the shipments that arrived at the Saipan port recently.
“There is no cause to panic. We are already conducting investigations,” Quintanilla said. They could not release more details as of the moment.
Quintanilla, who works with Northern Marianas College-Cooperative Research Extension and Education Services, said one of the challenges local farmers are facing is the presence of nematodes, or round worms, which affect almost all crops in the CNMI
But various methods are available so local farmers can protect their crops.
“Nematodes affect the production and growth of local crops such as banana, pineapple, vegetables, tomatoes, lettuce, sweet potatoes and other crops, and most of the local farmers are not aware about the presence of nematodes. Oftentimes they think that other factors caused the reduction and productivity of their crops,” Quintanilla said.
“We discovered nematodes in almost all locally produced crops on Saipan, Tinian, and Rota,” she added.
Quintanilla said there are different types of nematodes on island — including those that feed on bacteria, plants and just about anything.
Nematodes, she said, vary from the microscopic or very small in size to several meters in length.
Quintanilla said farmers can resort to certain methods to control the presence of nematodes in their crops such as exclusion or soil movement, clean planting, and quarantine, soil quality management, solarization, cover crops, soil additives, nematicides and plant resistance.
For more information, call NMC-CREES on Saipan at 234-5498 Ext. 1707, on Rota at 532-9513 and on Tinian at 433-0639.
