The agriculture industry in
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated ...
constitutes over $800 million or about 0.62% of the island's
gross domestic product
Gross domestic product (GDP) is a money, monetary Measurement in economics, measure of the market value of all the final goods and services produced and sold (not resold) in a specific time period by countries. Due to its complex and subjec ...
(GDP) in 2020 . Currently the sector accounts for 15% of the food consumed locally. Experts from the
University of Puerto Rico
The University of Puerto Rico ( es, Universidad de Puerto Rico, UPR) is the main public university system in the U.S. Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. It is a government-owned corporation with 11 campuses and approximately 58,000 students and 5,3 ...
argued that these crops could cover approximately 30% of the local demand, particularly that of smaller vegetables such as tomatoes, lettuce, etc. and several kinds of tubers that are currently being imported. The existence of a thriving agricultural economy has been prevented due to a shift in priorities towards industrialization, bureaucratization, mismanagement of terrains, lack of alternative methods and a deficient workforce. Its geographical location within the Caribbean exacerbates these issues, making the scarce existing crops propense to the devastating effects of
Atlantic hurricane
An Atlantic hurricane, also known as tropical storm or simply hurricane, is a tropical cyclone that forms in the Atlantic Ocean, primarily between the months of June and November. A hurricane differs from a cyclone or typhoon only on the basis of ...
s.
History
Agriculture or farming is concerned with the cultivation of plants, animals and other food sources that sustain life. It also involves growing crops for other purposes. Coffee production, and sugar cane production in Puerto Rico has had a history of ups and downs, affected by hurricanes and by its isolated location, and its political status as a colony of Spain and of the United States.
In 1900, the most important agricultural products in Puerto Rico were "cotton, rice, cacao, corn, coconuts, pepper, bananas, tobacco, vegetable dyes, coffee, sugar, pineapples and vanilla".
The impact in August 1899 of two hurricanes severely affected the island. The
1899 San Ciriaco hurricane on August 8, and an unnamed hurricane on August 22 killed approximately 3,400 people and left thousands without shelter, food, or work. The hurricanes cost the economy millions of dollars due to the destruction of the majority of the sugar and coffee plantations. Afterwards, nearly 5‚000
Puerto Ricans migrated to Hawaii by 1910 to work in the sugar plantations of said state.
In the 1940s and 1950s agriculture continued to play a crucial role in the island's economy with 45% of the labor force employed within the sector in 1940. The cultivation of pineapples was significant until the 1990s when the main buyer Lotus juice company closed.
In 2012, there were 13,159 farms in Puerto Rico.
While not a state, Puerto Rico is a member of the
Southern United States Trade Association
The Southern United States Trade Association (SUSTA) is one of four non-profit State Regional Trade Groups (SRTG) that help small U.S. companies build global businesses. This is achieved through various programs designed to educate companies on e ...
, a non-profit organization that assists the agriculture industry in developing its exports. In early 2020, farm owners in
Ponce reported on the continuing challenge of finding laborers.
New farms
As a result of the 2009 economic crisis and the susceptibility of Puerto Rico to hurricanes, there's been an urgency to push for more farms on the island. While not large enough to produce on a mass scale, the quality of products is high. Farming has a more positive image among young people in Puerto Rico,
however, in places like Ponce, where the weather tends to be hotter, farm owners complain that the
turnover rate
Turnover or turn over may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
*'' Turn Over'', a 1988 live album by Japanese band Show-Ya
*Turnover (band), an American rock band
*"Turnover", a song on Fugazi's 1990 album ''Repeater''
*''Turnover'', a Japanes ...
is too high.
In September 2019, an initiative to diminish the amount of coffee that is imported to Puerto Rico was announced by the
Hispanic Federation
The Hispanic Federation (HF) is a U.S based non-governmental organization focused on supporting Hispanic communities through local, state, and national advocacy. The Federation was founded in New York City in 1990 by a small group of Latino lead ...
, leading 1,500 Puerto Rico coffee growers.
Crops
Corn
Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. Th ...
(maize) is commonly grown here, including strains of
Bt corn producing the
Cry1F
Delta endotoxins (δ-endotoxins) are pore-forming toxins produced by ''Bacillus thuringiensis'' species of bacteria. They are useful for their insecticidal action and are the primary toxin produced by Bt maize/corn. During spore formation th ...
endotoxin.
This has produced extensive
Cry1F resistance.
One important pest this protects against is the (FAW, ''Spodoptera frugiperda''), including Cry1F-resistant FAW.
In 2007
Cry1F resistance in FAW was confirmed here and Dow and Pioneer withdrew their Cry1F corn
Herculex I, released in 2003 from use here.
Nonetheless other Cry1F corns are still commonly grown here.
By contrast Storer ''et al.'', 2012 notes no such resistance from the
mainland of the United States (up to their publication), showing a lack of movement of FAW from here to there.
Then in 2014 Huang ''et al.'' found
alleles
An allele (, ; ; modern formation from Greek ἄλλος ''állos'', "other") is a variation of the same sequence of nucleotides at the same place on a long DNA molecule, as described in leading textbooks on genetics and evolution.
::"The chro ...
that are shared with FAW populations on the US mainland.
Due to this history of detections, migration from PR is probably the source of Cry1F-resistance FAW there and not the other way around.
[
] On the other hand Banerjee ''et al.'', 2017 finds Cry1F-r in
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated ...
is commonly caused by a particular mutation in ', the
resistance allele '.
''SfABCC2'' is the FAW version of
multidrug resistance-associated protein 2
Multidrug resistance-associated protein 2 (MRP2) also called canalicular multispecific organic anion transporter 1 (cMOAT) or ATP-binding cassette sub-family C member 2 (ABCC2) is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ''ABCC2'' gene.
Functi ...
(ATP Binding Cassette subfamily C2, ABCC2).
They did not find a single such allele in Florida in 2012, 2014, or 2016.
These very disparate prevalences fail to support any substantial immigration of FAW from PR to Florida, contrary to earlier studies including Huang above.
[
]
The use of two or more effective
Cry protein
Delta endotoxins (δ-endotoxins) are pore-forming toxins produced by '' Bacillus thuringiensis'' species of bacteria. They are useful for their insecticidal action and are the primary toxin produced by Bt maize/corn. During spore formation ...
s may be necessary to provide
multiple modes of action for
resistance management
Pesticide resistance describes the decreased susceptibility of a pest population to a pesticide that was previously effective at controlling the pest. Pest species evolve pesticide resistance via natural selection: the most resistant specimens su ...
.
[
]
Both the
Fall Armyworm C-strain and
-R-strain are found here, and are shared with
Louisiana
Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...
.
These strains were first discovered by Pashley 1986 via a genetic analysis of the PR and La populations, showing segregation on
host preference.
Both have since been found elsewhere around the world.
[
]
Gallery
Mango tree with fruit in Rincón, Puerto Rico.jpg, Mango tree in Rincón
Sugar cane land 1a34028v.jpg, In 1941 sugar cane production surged in Río Piedras
Rio or Río is the Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, and Maltese word for "river". When spoken on its own, the word often means Rio de Janeiro, a major city in Brazil.
Rio or Río may also refer to:
Geography Brazil
* Rio de Janeiro
* Rio do Sul, a ...
, now a district of San Juan
Sack of oranges at the Acabe del Café festival in Maricao, Puerto Rico.jpg, Oranges at festival in Maricao
Maricao () is a town and the second-least populous municipality of Puerto Rico; it is located at the western edge of the Cordillera Central. It is a small town set around a small square in hilly terrain, north of San Germán, Sabana Grande and ...
Holes ready for the trees (7210981860).jpg, Preparing to plant in Maricao
Team work (7210990382).jpg, Students plant a tree at a school in Maricao
Hacienda Lealtad, former coffee plantation using slave labor in Lares, Puerto Rico 14.jpg, Newly planted coffee trees at ''Hacienda Lealtad
also known as , and (Lealtad Plantation in English language, English) is a historic coffee plantation in barrio La Torre, Lares, Puerto Rico. A large hacienda, it was founded in 1830, by Juan Bautista Plumey, a French immigrant, who arrived in ...
'' in Lares
Lares ( , ; archaic , singular ''Lar'') were guardian deities in ancient Roman religion. Their origin is uncertain; they may have been hero-ancestors, guardians of the hearth, fields, boundaries, or fruitfulness, or an amalgam of these.
Lares ...
after Hurricane Maria
Hurricane Maria was a deadly Saffir–Simpson scale#Category 5, Category 5 Tropical cyclone, hurricane that devastated the northeastern Caribbean in September 2017, particularly Dominica, Saint Croix, and Puerto Rico. It is regarded as the wo ...
in 2017 destroyed all its coffee trees
Vegetable stand at Fiesta Acabe del Café in Maricao, Puerto Rico.jpg, Vegetable and fruit stand at in Maricao in 2014
Cayey, 00736, Puerto Rico - panoramio (1).jpg, Avocado harvest in Cayey
Cayey (), officially Cayey de Muesas, is a mountain town and municipality in central Puerto Rico located on the Sierra de Cayey within the Central Mountain range, north of Salinas and Guayama; south of Cidra and Caguas; east of Aibonito and Sal ...
Coffee-Drying plot near Mayaguez.jpg, Coffee near Mayagüez in 1899
See also
*
Politics of Puerto Rico
The politics of Puerto Rico take place in the framework of a Democracy, democratic republic form of government that is under the jurisdiction and sovereignty of the United States Congress as an Territories of the United States, organized uninc ...
References
Further reading
*
External links
USDA Puerto RicoPuerto Rican Identity - Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources
{{Portal bar, Puerto Rico, Agriculture and Agronomy
Economy of Puerto Rico