Call for more support for farmers, businesses to recover after storm damage

 

With an active 2025 Atlantic hurricane season predicted, there is a call for the government to provide more technical support for farmers as well as implement an emergency fund that will help businesses to fast-track their recovery process if the island is impacted by a major storm. 

 

St. Elizabeth farmer Kingsley Palmer, who is still recovering from the devastation of Hurricane Beryl last July, said he lost all ten of his greenhouses.

 

In an interview Sunday on Radio Jamaica's weekly news review programme, That's a Rap, Mr. Palmer said he received some materials from the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA) toward rebuilding, but had hoped for assistance with the physical reconstruction. He said the rebuilding process for his greenhouses is 45% complete.

 

"I think the government should have actually sent in a team, like persons who have technical knowledge or expertise in terms of rebuilding the greenhouse structures. So a lot of farmers still are unable to rebuild because they don't have the sort of technical skill to build these structures.

And also it's quite expensive, the rebuilding process; the methods are expensive. So I think the farmers should really get some help in terms of the rebuilding process. And it's a chain reaction because when the farmers are out of business, hotels have to buy food at an exorbitant rate or they have to import. So if you build your local base then of course the government would automatically save on foreign exchange which is quite needed," he said.

 

Mr. Palmer also wants the government to educate farmers to mitigate losses such as reaping mature crops and putting them in a safe area. He also said he will be taking a different approach to protect his greenhouses.

 

"I've decided to possibly incorporate new strategies as it relates to hurricane preparedness. If and when I get the bulletin, I decided this time to take off all the plastic and all the netting from the structure itself. That's the sort of strategy I plan to employ," he noted. 

 

Meanwhile, the operator of Treasure Beach Inn and Bar, Ernie Muirhead, wants the government to treat the recovery of businesses with a high level of importance, noting that it is necessary to keep persons employed.

 

Mr. Muirhead, who was also a guest on That's a Rap, said he was only able to complete a portion of the rebuilding exercise three weeks ago.

 

"And where business owners don't have insurance and are contributors to a particular society, it makes sense to have, you know, an emergency fund that could be pulled from and then it's managed. One may think that the most pressing need is a person who is living in a home. While that is very important, it's also very important to be able to try to get the business back up and running because that's the business that employs that person and the majority of people in that country. The majority of people in that community, their employment is from the business places. So that cannot be ignored," he urged.