BATTERED, WIPED OUT
From plantains to poultry, Melissa’s destruction ripples across rural communities
Published:Sunday | November 23, 2025 | 12:14 AMLivern Barrett - Senior Staff Reporter
With Hurricane Melissa bearing down on Jamaica, Debbie-Ann Dixon devised a plan to save over 500 pounds of “fit” plantains on her sizeable farm in Elderslie, a community located in northwestern St Elizabeth.
The plantains were valued at close to $600,000, she estimated.
“Me bow dem – just drop dem – that if the storm come, it no flatten everything,” said Dixon, more widely known as ‘Nashan’, who has been farming for 12 years and often supplies customers serving the tourism sector.
But her preparations proved no match for the ferocity of the Category 5 hurricane, which made landfall in Jamaica on October 28. She lost everything.
“Everything flat. Wipe out. All now me no get one sell,” she told The Sunday Gleaner during a visit to the community last Tuesday.
“Goat and everybody go dung deh an eat dem,” added Dixon as she surveyed the damage, three weeks after the hurricane left a trail of destruction across the parish.
Miles away, fallen coconut trees lay scattered across a sprawling farm for nearly a mile along the main road in Braes River.
According to the Coconut Industry Board (CIB), which owns the 130-acre Barton Isle Hybridisation Farm, 2,961 “productive” coconut trees – 32 per cent of the 9,116 planted – were lost during Melissa’s passage.
Several miles farther, in the community of Elim, workmen laboured to clear debris at the Sydney Pagon STEM Academy Farm Store, where nearly 2,000 livestock perished and damage is estimated at more than $45 million.
Principal Milbert Miller reported the loss of approximately 1,400 broiler birds, 450 layer birds, and 16 young pigs.
These snapshots from three farms reveal the massive financial toll of the monster hurricane, which is expected to ripple across nearly a dozen communities in the northern hills of St Elizabeth, where most residents rely on agriculture for their livelihood.
Damage to Jamaica’s agriculture and fisheries sector from Hurricane Melissa is estimated at nearly $30 billion.
Dixon is unsure of her next move because she is “kinda tired right now”.
“I am trying to,” she said twice when asked if she intends to revive her thriving business.
Still, a glimmer of hope remains for some residents. Employers such as Barton Isle and the Sydney Pagon STEM Academy Farm Store have indicated they have no plans to cut staff.
Barton Isle employs 15 community members, some with long years of service.
A preliminary assessment of total losses, including destroyed equipment, is ongoing, said Shaun Cameron, managing director of the CIB, in an interview with The Sunday Gleaner last Thursday.
“I am not focusing on job loss right now. I am trying my best to maintain job security for the workers,” he said.
“I am actually trying to help my staff members who have been affected by the hurricane. I have a business in there, so I have to make sure I take care of the people that side,” he added.
Cameron said the CIB is developing a programme to provide building materials to affected employees.
Barton Isle is the largest hybridisation farm in the Western Hemisphere and is credited with saving the coconut industry in Jamaica following the outbreak of the lethal yellowing disease in the 1950s, which wiped out the native ‘Jamaica tall’ trees.
The estimated multimillion-dollar losses at the Sydney Pagon STEM Academy Farm Store include two of the three broiler houses and the abattoir, which were “totally demolished”, according to the principal.
The third broiler unit was partially destroyed.
The roof for the building that housed goats and sheep was completely dislodged.
“Ninety per cent of the farm unit has been destroyed. We are going to need about $45 million to renovate the farm,” Miller told The Sunday Gleaner.
However, Farm Manager Everton Barnett insisted that there are no immediate plans to terminate any employee.
“We are trying our best to see if we can keep everybody and that’s why we are trying to see how fast we can put things back together,” he said.
The farm produce and dairy products provide nutritional support for the 800-plus students at the Sydney Pagon STEM Academy. The surplus milk and eggs are sold to the community through five supermarkets, Miller revealed.
He said renovation of the broiler house, replacing the layer birds and restarting the dairy operations are the most urgent priorities right now.
“Before the hurricane, we were producing one of the best quality milk in Jamaica. There is a market for the milk and we have animals that we can’t milk because of the destruction here,” he said.