Farmers Bouncing Back After the Storms

Farmers in Brockery and Duff House Agri Park in Manchester, have wasted no time in clearing land of debris and planting seedlings to replace crops lost during the recent passage of tropical storms Grace and Ida. And in two weeks, Jamaica can expect to hear from Agriculture and Fisheries Minister the Hon. Floyd Green about the extent of the damage and the level of support that the recovery will need.

Mr. Garth Blake of Brockery, was expecting to reap his negro and yellow yams next month, but he has lost 200 of the 1,500 hills he planted. He also lost Chinese cabbage and tomatoes that were close to reaping time.

“I had some Chiney cabbage but that mash down completely, tomato get mash down, I had about quarter acre, some mash down  but not everything,” said  the 44-year veteran farmer. Blake, who went to see the minister, said over the years, he did not usually get anything from governments when he suffers loss, he usually just counts his losses and moves on.

“If I am lucky enough to get something today I would be grateful,” he said. He was speaking with JIS NEWS during a tour of flood ravaged farms in Manchester and St. Elizabeth, by Agriculture and Fisheries Minister Green on Friday (September 3).

Minister Green has been touring the island to see the damage to agricultural interests. Sections of Northern Manchester left saturated by water from Tropical Storm Grace, were further damaged by Ida.

“There was a lot of land slippage and many of our yam, banana and plantain  farmers suffered tremendous damage in all parishes. Our leafy vegetables such as cabbage, lettuce have also suffered and as we go through our fruit belt, I know from preliminary reports that a lot of melon, cantaloupe, sweet pepper have been significantly impacted by Ida,” said Green after touring the Duff House farms.

“I love to get a first-hand view, speak to the farmers and see the extent of the damage for myself. It gives me a better feel when I craft a recovery programme to see the farmers’ greatest needs,” Green said while lauding the resilience of the farmers.

Many of them have already been replanting crops, such as sweet potato, tomatoes and cabbage, as well as clearing land and getting back to work.

“Although the ministry does not usually set aside funds for such emergencies, this is a challenge but we will have to make a fulsome report to Cabinet indicating the extent of the damage, the assessment, and see if we can get any additional funds. A number of farm roads have been damaged and if farmers have limited access to markets, it creates a more substantial problem,” Green said.

Support to Farmers

He also told JIS NEWS that based on the damage he had seen so far, he would let Cabinet know of the need for additional support for a direct recovery programme and for an extended farm road programme. He acknowledged that Jamaica was experiencing difficult times with Covid-19, but he would be attempting to craft a recovery programme in his ministry. It will focus on inputs and helping the farmers to salvage their cops and replanting material such as seeds, as well as technical support/advice.

Minister Green said there would be short-term shocks to vegetables and plantain and bananas, since some 30 per cent of existing crops were destroyed.

“We have outlined a $50 million plan for our plantain and banana sector…. Based on the damage we have seen, at least 30-35 % of the hectares under production have been lost. We may see some short-term impact, what we normally do is gauge whether we need external sources of products to stabilise the prices while our farmers get back up and running,” Minister Green said.