Denbigh Agricultural Show to help drive Beryl recovery efforts

  

Agriculture Minister Floyd Green says this year's Denbigh Agricultural Show will be used to push the recovery and rebuilding process for the sector.

 

The Minister announced in Pariament that the sector suffered close to $5 billion in damage as a result of the passage of Hurricane Beryl.

 

Minister Green says the Denbigh Show will be reconfigured to allow farmers to bounce back from the devastation. 

 

"Having had discussions with the JAS (Jamaica Agricultural Society), having had discussions with our stakeholders, having appreciated what has happened in relation to the agricultural sector, I'm pleased to announce that what we will have this year is a reshaped, scaled-down, Denbigh Agricultural Show, under the theme, Building Back Through Resilience," he announced. 

 

"For this year, we will have a one-day show focusing on farmers. We will look to host seminars on how to get back into production, specifically targeted our industry players, preparing greenhouse farmers for hurricane disaster mitigation. We will have discounts on farm inputs plus other packages for fishers and farmers. And we will also provide farmers and fishers who have not yet received benefit, who have not yet been assessed to be able to come and to leave their information," said the minister, who was speaking in the House of Representatives on Tuesday. 

 

 

Meanwhile, Minister Green said scores of farm roads across the island were damaged by the hurricane.

 

He said this will be added stress for farmers seeking to get their produce to market. 

 

It is estimated that 62 kilometres of farm roads have been damaged with repair costs of about $165 million. 

 

"We also suffered some damage to farm buildings, including our RADA office in Westmoreland, 217,000 square feet of farm buildings have been damaged, estimated repair costs of $85 million. Irrigation systems covering 35 hectares have been damaged, estimated costs of $35 million, and damage to the NIC's irrigation network infrastructure, including broken mains, and unfortunately, significant loss to our renewable energy systems is estimated at about $400 million," Mr. Green outlined. 

 

He said $700 million has been allocated to drive the initial recovery for farmers.