The damage to the agriculture sector in the aftermath of Hurricane Melissa is expected to balloon in excess of J$50 billion.
Agriculture Minister Floyd Green says the repair bill is expected to grow as ongoing field visits and damage assessment will account for the damage sustained outside of the hardest hit parishes in southern and western Jamaica.
Farmers in parishes such as St. Catherine have reported losses despite being spared the brunt of the Category 5 system. Minister Green says the rapid assessment by the World Bank is an estimated $60 billion.
However, the final figure could fall just below that.
“By the time everything is accounted for, you get in the figures, we’ll probably fall somewhere in the middle, right? Maybe somewhere around that $40, $50 billion figure. What we can say is that it is widespread. What we can say is that it is significant in terms of the different crop lines and the amount of livestock that have suffered. And what we can say, it will take a mammoth effort to build it back,” he admitted.
“The good news is that the most resilient people in Jamaica are farmers and fishers, right? As you go around, you’ll see people have suffered, but they’re not lying down, they’re not crying, they’re not saying, boy, life is so hard; they’re trying to get back up, they’re trying to get back out there. They’re literally out in the fields trying to salvage and to keep [going], and once they get the support that we’re offering now, we know that we will accelerate the pace of recovery,” Mr. Green insisted.
He said the dissemination of seeds for the regrowing of major vegetable lines will soon commence.
As for land preparation, which the minister said will be critical in the rebounding process, support will be coming from the ministry to bolster efforts starting next week.
“We are getting on board about six of those walk-behind tractors so that in these mountain areas like Guy’s Hill, where the farming is good, but a regular tractor may not be so adequate to serve them, we will provision one for this area, so that the farmers who are having some challenges in getting the labour to go back out, they can be more efficient. So we’re going to be rolling it out come next week in terms of our new walk-behind tractors, our augers, which help our yam farmers in terms of digging the holes,” he promised.
The Agriculture Minister was addressing farmers in Guy’s Hill, St. Catherine on Thursday.
