Agriculture officials see a fortune out of a misfortune
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Contact: Shannon Lebourne
Friday 5 November 2010 – Agriculture officials are focused on seizing the opportunity created by the devastation of Hurricane Tomas to further bolster the agriculture sector for sustainable growth..
Preliminary assessments indicate that the sector was hard hit by the category 1 Hurricane.
Minister responsible for Agriculture, Honourable Ezekiel Joseph revealed that the banana industry suffered one hundred percent losses.
“As a country, we may be able to export bananas in May or June, 2011, and that is dependent on what percentage of the fields are snapped; a snapped field is one where the neck of the mother plant is broken but the root is still standing. If we have a higher percentage of snapped fields then we should be able to export by May or June 2011. If there is need for total rehabilitation as a Ministry we believe that we should capitalize on the opportunity for us to produce during a period when WINFRESH and the UK Market has the demand for the product, so whilst there are a lot of sad stories, there are opportunities for us as a country to capitalize on what is happening right now.”
Preliminary assessments also indicate that the livestock sector was also hard hit by Hurricane Tomas which came at a time when the entire agriculture industry was re-emerging from the effects of the recent drought.
Minister Joseph says the devastation caused by the natural disaster has made it even more important for government to scale up support for the industry.
“The prime minister just recently made an allocation to provide support to our farmers—livestock farmers, banana farmers and our fishermen. Right now we have to go back to the drawing board. We believe that whilst the situation is drastic, our farmers will be able to bounce back with the necessary support. It’s not the first time we have experienced something like this; we know our farmers are capable of bouncing back, although this is he worst I have ever seen in my tenure within the agriculture sector. We will not surrender; I want to see this as an opportunity and I will capitalize on it.”
Joseph says technical personnel from the Ministry of Agriculture, Lands, Forestry and Fisheries will conduct an in-depth assessment to ascertain the real extent of loss to the agriculture sector. Once the assessment is complete, officials will release the cost of the destruction.
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