Over $1 Billion Losses in Agriculture Sector

Initial estimates indicate that the island’s agricultural sector suffered losses of over $1 billion due to Hurricane Beryl.

Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining, Floyd Green, made the disclosure during an inspection visit to farms in parts of St Elizabeth on Saturday (July 6).

He added that all crop lines were damaged.

“In fact, we saw about 85 per cent of our banana and plantain lines down in Portland and St Mary, but as far as the southern parishes are concerned, our vegetable lines and tubers like cassava (were mostly affected). We saw a lot of damage to fruit trees – ackee, breadfruit and unfortunately, our greenhouse farmers suffered significant damage,” he noted.

Minister Green said he plans to brief parliament on Tuesday on the scale of the damage and outline an action plan.

“We understand that a quick response is needed at this point and we know that our farmers are there and fortunately they are resilient. So they are planning to return to farming and we at the Ministry will be ready to help them,” he promised.

Outlining the damage to greenhouse farmers, the Minister said around 90 per cent of producers in the southern parishes of Clarendon, Manchester and St Elizabeth had been affected, with many losing crops and buildings.

“We will have to do something special for our greenhouse farmers to see how we can get them back up and running as quickly as possible. (It’s) a big blow to our agricultural sector in general because our greenhouses have usually been the backbone of our food security matrix because they operate in and out of season because of the way they are organized. It will be a huge blow to our vegetable (crop) lines,” he stressed.

Turning to the fisheries sector, the minister said initial reports indicated that between 10 and 15 per cent of fishing boats and infrastructure such as hangars had been damaged.

He noticed that many fishermen had lost their traps.

He reported that livestock farmers, especially those involved in poultry production, have also felt the significant effects of the situation.

“In preparing the response, we need to look at not only how to help them get back up and running in terms of replenishing their (chickens) but also getting those (hen houses) structures back up and running. A lot of those structures were very expensive because they were top-of-the-line in terms of design. There were tunnel houses that unfortunately have been destroyed,” he lamented.

He added that entities under the ministry were also affected, with the National Irrigation Commission (NIC) renewable energy collection station in St. Elizabeth suffering major damage.

“This is our newest site for our renewable energy and unfortunately we would lose at least 20 percent of the solar panels… and we’ve seen that kind of loss at all of our sites in St. Elizabeth. So it’s going to cost us millions to replace them,” the minister said.

“In addition we have seen losses at Bodles (Agricultural Research Station in Hounslow), one of our bud houses completely collapsed and not only have we lost the plants but we have also lost the house and we will have to rebuild it a bit. So there will be significant infrastructure costs for the Department to get these systems back up and running,” said Minister Green.

He noted that NIC was unable to pump water to farmers due to power supply issues and was looking for a solution to ensure farmers “return to their fields”.

Minister Green has appealed to the private sector to help with the recovery efforts as everyone needs to be involved.

During the trip, the Minister visited several towns, including Comma Pen, Top Hill, Malvern, Flagaman and Treasure Beach.

He was accompanied by representatives of the Ministry, NIC and the Rural Agriculture Development Agency (RADA).

– JIS News

Follow The Gleaner on X and Instagram @JamaicaGleaner and on Facebook @GleanerJamaica. Send us a WhatsApp message at 1-876-499-0169 or email us at [email protected] or [email protected].