Agriculture Minister Saboto Caesar reported on the fiscal outcome of the worst drought to impact St. Vincent and the Grenadines\u2019 agricultural sector in 50 years. He told Parliament on Thursday August 13 that the losses amounted to EC$16M and were spread across all 3 food producing districts.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe losses to overall production are estimated at 16 million Eastern Caribbean dollars. It is broken down by commodity and the values are as follows: Bananas $762, 000; Plantains $4.3M; vegetables $6.1M; root crops $4.4M; herbs $243, 000; other commodities $526,000.<\/p>\n
\u201cMr. Speaker, losses by agricultural regions \u2013 Region 1 $3M and that is from Richmond to Lowmans Leeward; Region 2 $3.4M and that is from Lowmans Leeward to Peruvian Vale including the Mesopotamia Valley and the Grenadines \u2013 those areas are accounted for as well in Region 2. And Region 3, Mr. Speaker, $9.9M and that is from Peruvian Vale to Fancy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Minister Caesar also noted that \u201cDrought 2020 has been recorded as one of the worst droughts experienced in St. Vincent and the Grenadines in the last 50 years, impacting on all types of agricultural production.\u201d<\/p>\n
Caesar told the nation that COVID-19 \u201ccompound[ed] an already challenging period\u201d by causing \u201cuncertainty in farm workers\u2019 timetables and interrupted trade.\u201d Additionally, he posited, increased regional and international border restrictions also hampered trade in the sector as well as \u201cdelays in the supply of inputs as a result of impacted shipping lines.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Agriculture Minister declared that his team \u201credoubled its efforts to ensure that the factors of production needed to sustain a viable sector are maintained.\u201d<\/p>\n
Farmers continued to register to take advantage of the Drought 2020 recovery support measures up to Monday August 10, MP Caesar said, \u201cat 30 registration centers across St. Vincent and the Grenadines.\u201d
\nSince the objective is to expeditiously \u201ccapture the information\u201d the registration process would run until Friday August 21, 2020. MP Caesar also advised that farmers \u201cregister in person with both a national and farmer\u2019s ID card.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ceasar, an incumbent MP seeking his 3rd term in office, lauded his government\u2019s commitment to \u201call stakeholders in the agricultural sector, agri-processors and the fisheries sector\u201d as they strive \u201cto mitigate both the devastating consequences of climate change as experienced Drought 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic.\u201d<\/p>\n
JP.Schwmon.Vincy@Gmail.Com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Agriculture Minister Saboto Caesar reported on the fiscal outcome of the worst drought to impact St. Vincent and the Grenadines\u2019 agricultural sector in 50 years. He told Parliament on Thursday August 13 that the losses amounted to EC$16M and were spread across all 3 food producing districts. \u201cThe losses to overall production are estimated at<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":13674,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-local-news","category-mainstory"],"yoast_head":"\n