RADA Urges Farmers to Document Hurricane Damage for National Assessment Efforts

The Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA) is urging farmers to carefully document damage to their farms, produce, and livestock.

This effort is critical to supporting national damage assessment activities, particularly as access to several areas remains restricted following the passage of Hurricane Melissa.

Senior RADA Plant Health and Food Safety Officer, Francine Webb, noted that assessments remain ongoing as the Authority works to capture the full scope of farmers affected by the Category Five system.

“Farm damage assessment is going to be important. Some of our own officers would have lost their homes as well… so getting to everybody is still a little challenge. Now that communication is so challenging, especially in the west, it’s going to be important, where possible, that farmers take photos and videos of the field. Even if they can’t send those in right away, [at least they have them] as evidence,” she told JIS News.

Ms. Webb explained that photos and videos of field animals, damaged structures, stored produce, and agricultural inputs are invaluable to the assessment process.

“Keep that as a record to help us in being able to quantify all of that. It’s going to be important to know the crop you have, the variety, how much you had planted, the stage of growth, and what estimated loss you have as well. So that kind of record is also important for us to be able to better quantify and prioritise the support that is needed at this time,” she said.

Meanwhile, Ms. Webb reiterated the importance of farmers being registered, particularly in the aftermath of natural hazards.

“This kind of information that we collect on a routine basis… the cropping information… is what we would have to now rely on in being better able to do that level of estimation based on what would have been in production, say, for the last quarter, and what would have been anticipated for the period that we’re going through now. That can help in us being able to quantify and to prioritise the needs that are out there,” she stated.