Additional $1.4b allocated for recovery of agriculture sector

 

Agriculture Minister Floyd Green says the government will pump an additional $1.4 billion into the recovery efforts for the agriculture sector following the effects of Hurricane Beryl.

 

The government had initially allocated $700 million for the recovery.

 

But speaking with Radio Jamaica News on Tuesday afternoon on the sidelines of the Denbigh Agriculture Show in Clarendon, Mr. Green said further help is coming for farmers who lost crops and livestock in the hurricane.

 

"Our greenhouse farmers have it even more difficult in terms of getting back up and running, and that's why we've already procured about $55 million in greenhouse items to help them at least start back with one greenhouse and they can build from there. I've announced today that we're going to add an additional $100 million to that as a part of our new package. We are now going to put an additional $1.4 billion towards the recovery effort."

 

"The original $700 million that was announced was what the Ministry looked at around and said that they could reallocate from  its own resources, not touching our capital budget, to be able to respond quickly. But we do know that we needed more, especially considering that we've seen over $6 billion in loss to our agricultural sector. So the $1.4 billion will give us a big start, it will really help us and we will really solidify some of the longer terms things we need to do to build resilience," Mr. Green noted.