Agri minister warns of severe crop losses as St Elizabeth struggles to recover

Jamaica’s food supply has taken a direct hit from Hurricane Melissa, with farmlands flattened, markets empty, and the country’s top crop, yam, facing what Agriculture Minister Floyd Green calls “a major blow” to both dinner tables and exports.

Touring the flood-soaked plains of Black River yesterday, Green said the country’s breadbasket parishes were among the hardest hit.

“We’re still in the assessment phase,” he told The Gleaner. “Now we are on the ground and we’ve already got reports from some of the preliminary parishes. We’re finally able to visit now.”

He said the magnitude of the storm means the damage will cut across multiple crop lines.

“We have flooding in parts of Clarendon, a big vegetable belt, and also here in St Elizabeth, where melons and vegetables will be impacted,” Green said. “Unfortunately, the storm walked through our major yam-producing areas between Trelawny and Manchester, almost 90 per cent of Jamaica’s yam comes from there.”

Green also warned that the fallout could be felt both locally and abroad.

“Depending on how badly they are impacted, we could see a major blow not just for local consumption but for export as well,” he said, noting that yams remain Jamaica’s number-one agricultural export.

The minister said the Government has already activated its Agricultural Recovery Task Force and will meet in the coming week to decide the next steps.

“The first thing we have to do is assess, then intervene,” he opined. “We already know that we may have to provide seeds, and we procured some even before the hurricane because we always have to plan ahead.”

LOOKING TO RESTART PRODUCTION

Green added that teams will also identify less-damaged areas that can be used to restart production while rehabilitation continues in the worst-hit zones.

“We expect to have the full team meeting on Monday,” he said. “By the end of this week, when we have the numbers, we’ll determine if supplementary resources will be needed. Some things, like yam, we don’t really get into supplementary support for. In the interim, maybe Irish potato we already have resources for that. But we also have to think about the long term. We don’t want to take a short-term step that doesn’t work out.”

While officials walked through damaged fields, residents in the Black River area were seen running towards poor-relief trucks that crawled into the community with limited supplies.

Latoya, a resident of Crane Road, said she and her neighbours have been without food since the hurricane hit.

“We nuh have no food, we no have nothing at all. Di store dem empty,” she told The Gleaner.

Usually, Latoya travels to Kingston’s Coronation Market every Thursday to sell produce. But this week, she had nothing to take and nothing to eat.

“Mi nuh have nothing fi eat and mi no have no money,” she said, her voice cracking. “My mother was stubborn enough not to move; she’s 58. There is no house, there is nothing left.”

In a parish that feeds much of the island, her worry struck at a deeper truth. If St Elizabeth’s farms are gone, the nation’s food chain is in danger too.

“Mi sit down and wonder and ponder if we nuh have no food, how di rest a di country a go have food? People goodly nuh have water at all.”

ashanti.lawson@gleanerjm.com