“Community Participation for eradication of the Giant African Snail in Antigua and Barbuda”, will be the focus of a series of Town Hall Meetings which begin in Antigua and Barbuda early next month.
The initiative which is a project of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), will support the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Barbuda Affairs (MoAFBA) in the management of the Giant African Snail (GAS) through strategic technical approaches that
involve the local communities.
The project which was recently launched as a call to action, will incorporate a number of activities including town hall meetings in strategic communities across Antigua and Barbuda, where residents will be given an opportunity to voice their concerns and share useful information.
This project will be led by the Plant Protection Unit in conjunction with the Giant African Snail Eradication Task Force, to bring greater awareness of and provide support for, a community-based approach to managing the Giant African Snail in residential areas, where mainly crop production and residential areas are affected and to prevent the spread of the pest to Barbuda, which remains free of the pest.
The meetings will educate people on how to handle the eradication of these pests in order to protect their own health.
In focusing on specific areas, surveys will also be conducted which will assist in identifying definitive ways to completely eradicate these pests.
The schedule for the town hall meetings which will be held from 6 pm-8 pm is as follows:
1. Tuesday 5th November 2019 – Glanville Secondary School
2. Thursday 7th November 2019 – Newfield Primary School
3. Tuesday 12th November 2019 – Liberta Primary School
4. Thursday 14th November 2019 – Jennings Primary School
5. Monday 18th November 2019 – Sir McChesney George Secondary School (Barbuda)
6. Tuesday 26th November 2019 – Cedar Grove Primary School
The Giant African Snail was officially identified in Antigua in April 2008, following a report received by the Plant Protection Unit of an infestation in the Jolly Hill area within the community of Bolans.
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wait, wait, where is the townhall meeting for PAYNTERS and fitches creek area. Are we expected to drive to Glanvilles or Cedar Grove?? I thought we wanted the community to get on board with eradication?? Additionally the snails are also on BishopGate street do we expect these people to drive to Cedar Grove?? we need a meeting at Piggotts Primary School and Villa Primary School.
Where must the residents of Gunthropes and Greenbay go for the meeting? Are you telling me that In the whole of Antigua on six TH meetings. All you making joke.
This country can’t even fight snails
Stories are told that Antigua was a snake invested Island and to combat that the early settlers brought in the mangoes. Sometime we need to fight nature with nature. And what about spraying all the open fields where the snails hide with salt water. We have many water trucks that can go around and spray seawater on many vacant lots and flush out the snail with eggs. They can do a sample area first to see the effect of it.
And I heard a farmer on the radio say that his chickens are eating all the snails so that is something worth trying as well. We really do not need to spend million buying snail bait from Trinidad.
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