Gail Alexan­der

The Agri­cul­ture Min­istry has been re­view­ing a pes­ti­cide con­tain­ing Thiodi­carb to deal with the Gi­ant African snail, as the pes­ti­cide has shown in­creased suc­cess in oth­er parts of the world, but al­ter­na­tive plans are al­so be­ing de­vel­oped for im­ple­men­ta­tion with­in the com­ing weeks.

This was the word from Min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Agri­cul­ture, Land and Fish­eries Avinash Singh dur­ing Fri­day’s sit­ting of Par­lia­ment.

He was re­ply­ing to queries from UNC MPs Van­dana Mo­hit, Dave Tan­coo and Ravi Rati­ram fol­low­ing ques­tions raised on strate­gies to com­bat the out­break of Gi­ant African snails na­tion­wide.

Singh said, “I want to sym­pa­thise with the farm­ers. It’s re­al­ly an is­sue we have to deal with.”

He said the min­istry pre­vi­ous­ly had a de­cen­tralised man­age­ment pro­gramme geared to­wards the con­tain­ment and re­duc­tion of snail pop­u­la­tions in ex­ist­ing in­fes­ta­tion zones and mit­i­ga­tion of spread, ex­e­cut­ed by a Gi­ant African Snail Task Force.

“In light of re­cent in­creas­es in Gi­ant African snail pop­u­la­tion sizes, the Gi­ant African Snail Task Force has been re­con­sti­tut­ed,” he said.

Singh said the team was al­ways at the min­istry but for the first time, mem­bers of the pub­lic and from the pri­vate sec­tor have been in­cor­po­rat­ed. The com­mit­tee has ini­ti­at­ed work to de­vel­op plans to ad­dress the snail in­fes­ta­tion in a more di­rect way.

Singh said cur­rent­ly, the min­istry has moved from an erad­i­ca­tion mode to a man­age­ment ap­proach since in­fes­ta­tion has spread across the coun­try and pop­u­la­tions ex­ceed the ge­o­graph­i­cal cov­er­age ca­pa­bil­i­ties of the task force.

Man­age­ment has tak­en the form of an ad­vi­so­ry ser­vice, dis­sem­i­nat­ing in­for­ma­tion to the pub­lic on how to deal with snail is­sues via fact sheets, posters, me­dia re­leas­es, Face­book and YouTube videos.

Singh said that in 2020, the Pes­ti­cide and Tox­ic Chem­i­cal Con­trol Board ad­vised that the ac­tive in­gre­di­ent Thiodi­carb in liq­uid for­mu­la­tion was not reg­is­tered for use to con­trol snails and should be re­moved as a rec­om­men­da­tion by the min­istry.

“How­ev­er, the min­istry’s Re­search Di­vi­sion has been re­view­ing this pes­ti­cide, as its ef­fec­tive­ness in treat­ing with adult and ju­ve­nile snails, as well as the eggs, has shown in­creased suc­cess in oth­er ar­eas across the world... we’re cur­rent­ly re­view­ing the suc­cess at our lo­cal Re­search Di­vi­sion. This is one of the most ef­fec­tive baits in the con­trol of the Gi­ant African snail,” Singh said.

“Ac­cord­ing­ly, a re­quest has been made to the board to re­view bait with the ac­tive in­gre­di­ent Thiodi­carb. The in­tent is to utilise bait with this ac­tive in­gre­di­ent to con­trol the snail pop­u­la­tion. We’ve writ­ten the board to have that in­cor­po­rat­ed in the min­istry’s pro­gramme of deal­ing with the Gi­ant African snails and are cur­rent­ly await­ing a re­sponse. As soon as we get clear­ance from the board, this bait will be in­cor­po­rat­ed in our pro­gramme.”

Al­ter­na­tive plans are al­so be­ing de­vel­oped for im­ple­men­ta­tion with­in the com­ing weeks if the req­ui­site ap­proval is de­layed or de­nied.

“The min­istry con­tin­ues mon­i­tor­ing the spread of this in­va­sive species and will pro­vide sup­port to those ar­eas af­flict­ed in the com­ing weeks,” Singh added.

“This is one of the world’s most de­struc­tive pests and with the re­cent in­crease in rain­fall in T&T, it’s the am­bi­ent con­di­tions for its spread and mul­ti­pli­ca­tion. We in­tend com­ing up with strate­gies and con­tin­u­ing work we’ve been do­ing.”