Minister for Agriculture, Hon. Alfred Propspere has informed of the severe impact of Tropical Storm Brett on agriculture. According to the Minister, 75% of banana industry critically damaged by the passage of the storm with plantain crops also sustaining major damage. This is expected to limit the availability of the two fruits over the next few months.
“This is a major concern to me as the Minister for Agriculture, especially considering the importance of the banana industry and the availability of market in the region that we were not to meet in recent months; this has caused a major setback to us” Prospere said. “My heart goes out to the farmers” he added.
Prospere went on to note that there is a need for additional protective measures to put into place to limit these issues from having such drastic impacts. He called for the need for windbreaks to help cope with the gusts normally associated with hurricanes and tropical storms.
“It would have been good for our farmers and our farms to be surrounded by a wind break, that is the mango trees and other trees that are planted along the perimeter. When I went to places like the Mabouya Valley, I saw a farm one side of the road, completely destroyed, but the other farm next to it had some level of wind break and just a few trees were damaged”
Further assessments of the situation are scheduled to take place at the Cabinet meeting, held today, Monday June 26.
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