Many farmers in Trelawny lost their entire crop of yams in the aftermath of Hurricane Beryl.
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Trelawny yam farmers Byron Lindsay, Anthony Wilson and Sherene Green-Williams
By Kimone Witter
Yam farmers in southern Trelawny are calling for assistance from the Ministry of Agriculture to be accelerated after many lost their entire crop, estimated at millions of dollars, in the aftermath of Hurricane Beryl.
Southern Trelawny is one of the largest yam-producing areas in Jamaica.
One farmer in Lowe River, Byron Lindsay, lost 2,000 hills of yam, an estimated $9 million in revenue.
Mr. Lindsay said the crop was not at the stage to be reaped.
"I have to just deal with it same way...everything just gone down the drain, suh mi haffi just low this, it cyah tek up and do nothing to it," said the dejected farmer.
Anthony Wilson in Allsides, Wait-a-Bit bemoaned the cost to clean the area and replant after losing 1,600 yam hills.
"It very much hectic. A one whole heep a money mi haffi guh spend...suh it's a big, big, big loss," he told Radio Jamaica News.
Several women, who said farming is their only source of income, also recounted losses of hundreds of yam hills in Lowe River and Wait-a-Bit.
One of those farmers, Sherene Green-Williams, said she lost 700 hills of yam, which she had expected would allow her to assist in sending her grandchildren back to school in September.
"Mi a ask fi likkle help because see it flat down a bush deh and a it...mi have fi help out di situation, fi help mi grand pickney dem fi gah school. Suh mi nuh know how it aguh guh between back-to-school and mi grand pickney dem," she lamented.
Meanwhile, a gravity-fed system created several years ago to get water to residents of Trelawny and their neighbours in Manchester is proving to be especially useful now, as there is no electricity in sections of the parishes to provide the power to pump water from National Water Commission facilities.
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