Ginger is one of the horticultural spice crops in Jamaica for local and export market. The quality of Jamaican peeled dried ginger is considered among the best in the world, and in the past fetched higher prices on the global market. Ginger is added as spice and fresh ingredient in recipes. A range of value-added products such as beverages, bakery items, candies, curry powder, ice creams, liqueurs, sauce are prepared from ginger. Ginger reportedly has many nutraceutical properties. Constraints in the ginger sector include low field productivity, occurrence of the dreadful rhizome rot disease, competition at the global level and requirement of standards for exporting ginger and its products to foreign markets. The Jamaican sector needs to revisit its traditional ginger value chain, in particular the field production system.
Growing concerns among local and overseas consumers of pesticide use and residues, food-borne pathogens, quality of produce, safety of the producer and the environment, and resource conservation have also mandated the production and processing industries to exercise best practices for quality ginger production in Jamaica. In this context, this manual has been prepared to provide guidelines on Good Agricultural Practices for cultivation of Ginger in Jamaica. Rhizome rot is one of the major constraints in ginger production in Jamaica.
Two useful manuals are provided below, highlighting ginger production using good agricultural practices:
Single Bud Technology
NURSERY LEVEL: “Guidelines for seed rhizome production”: http://www.fao.org/3/cb3363en/cb3363en.pdf
Ginger Field Production
FARM LEVEL: “A guide to good agricultural practices for commercial production of ginger under field conditions in Jamaica”: http://www.fao.org/3/cb3365en/cb3365en.pdf