FAO-backed US$50m programme to support storm-hit farmers
Loading article...
WESTERN BUREAU:
Scores of farmers in St Elizabeth and other western parishes devastated by Hurricane Melissa are expected to benefit from a US$50-million ($7.9 billion) recovery and resilience programme to be rolled out by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining. The initiative is funded by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) and is scheduled to begin in September.
The announcement was made on Wednesday during a tour of hurricane-affected farming communities in St Elizabeth by FAO Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for Latin America and the Caribbean René Orellana Halkyer, along with officials from the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining, France, Belgium, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade.
“The [state] minister [Franklin Witter] has guided us to the farms where we are assessing the impact of the recent hurricane,” Halkyer said. “FAO is an organisation that reacted quickly when the hurricane passed through this region, and we have, with the guidance of the government, managed the projects and the funds that will soon be implemented in the region of US$50 million.”
The initiative, titled Emergency Response and Early Recovery Support to Artisanal Fishers and Smallholder Farmers Affected by Hurricane Melissa, is expected to support vulnerable farmers and fishers through technical assistance, access to agricultural inputs, financing support, and climate-resilient technologies.
Halkyer said the programme is intended to strengthen long-term resilience in Jamaica’s agricultural sector.
“We are visiting and learning also from some of the producers on these farms, which are implementing local technologies, sustainable technology and listening to the producers,” he said.
He added that irrigation systems and improved access to water resources would form an important part of the recovery package.
“This is a package that will be managed by the government, which contemplates different areas, including technical assistance, access to inputs and other issues that are going to be informed by the government,” Halkyer noted.
Franklin Witter, minister of state in the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining, said the FAO delegation assessed the extent of the damage caused by Hurricane Melissa and examined ways to improve resilience among farmers.
“The FAO, which is one of our leading partners in terms of agriculture in Jamaica, looked at the impact of Hurricane Melissa and the small farmers in St Elizabeth,” Witter said.
The tour included visits to Bromley’s Egg Farm in Holland Bamboo, Calabash Bay Fishing Beach, and the Flagaman farming area in Pedro Plains, St Elizabeth.
At Ridge Pen in Pedro Plains, the delegation met farmer Junior Eubanks, who said he suffered more than $128 million in losses from Hurricane Beryl and Hurricane Melissa.
“The losses were huge from Hurricane Beryl into Hurricane Melissa. I lost over $128 million in damages from both my greenhouses and external crops,” Eubanks told the FAO. “I lost irrigation, plants in full production, it is a lot of losses.”
In an interview with The Gleaner, Eubanks urged policymakers and international agencies to move beyond subsistence support and create structured financing systems for farmers.
“We no longer want subsistence for our business. What we want is structured loan facilities that we can produce and pay back our loan,” he argued.
Meanwhile, FAO representative for Jamaica, The Bahamas and Belize, Ana Touza, said preparatory work was already under way ahead of the programme’s rollout.
“The funding is being approved by the Green Global Fund and we are expecting to start before September,” Touza said.
“We are doing the inception phase. There are a number of international consultants that are doing some assessments and studies that will take place this coming month, so ideally we are starting full implementation by September.”
File name: A8 FOA agriculture