Tough going for Flagaman farmers

WESTERN BUREAU:

A year after Hurricane Melissa devastated their farms, several farmers in Flagaman, St Elizabeth are still struggling to resume pre-storm cultivation levels, hampered by a lack of financing, agricultural inputs, and reliable markets needed to rebuild their livelihoods.

St Elizabeth, the island’s breadbasket parish, suffered extensive damage during the Category 5 storm, which destroyed crops and infrastructure, disrupting production even as it damaged homes and other assets.

Andrew Eubanks, vice-president of the Flagaman Farmers Benevolent Society, said Hurricane Melissa wiped out several of his fields. With buyers scarce for crops planted since the storm, farmers face yet another setback in their struggle to recover.

“I lost about five different fields,” said Eubanks, who told The Gleaner that he planted a field of yellow squash a day after the hurricane but was forced to abandon it as there was no market when it was ready for harvesting.

Eubanks said that since the hurricane, he had planted seven different crops in succession, but his efforts yielded little financial return, mainly because of the lack of buyers.

“The field performed fairly well, but there was no sale. That was the problem,” he said, noting that the experience, which was not unique, has left him and many other farmers without the capital needed to resume production on a sustainable basis.

According to Eubanks, the roughly 75 farmers in his group are not yet back to full production, with some still unable to plant even a single field after losing crops and suffering damage to their homes.

For those farmers, the choice has often been between repairing their roofs and investing in another crop.

“You spend it back on the roof and there is nothing to put in the crop. So, it’s basically hand to mouth,” he said of the limited funds at their disposal.

Eubanks acknowledged that some farmers had received assistance, including support from the NCB Foundation, which reached out to approximately 100 farmers in the Back Flagaman and Back Ferguson areas. He also recalled Agriculture Minister Floyd Green bringing about 60 bags of fertiliser to a meeting in April.

However, Eubanks believes agricultural recovery assistance was not on par with the support provided under the Government’s roof-repair programme.

“In terms of the agricultural sector, we have gotten less help in comparison to the ROOFS programme,” he said, adding that he had not heard of the Rural Agricultural Development Authority helping farmers in his group.

Eubanks is also appealing for more support in the form of fertiliser, seeds and other essential inputs to help farmers return to their customary levels of production.

According to him, the struggle is compounded by uncertainty surrounding watermelon production, a crop many farmers would like to plant at this time because of its relatively short growing cycle and earning potential.

He said farmers had been experiencing problems with watermelon quality since 2020, with some fruits appearing healthy externally but having pale, watery flesh when cut open. Although tests were conducted between 2021 and 2023, he said, farmers were still reluctant to risk their limited resources on watermelons.

Meanwhile, drought conditions have added another layer of difficulty for the farmers, highlighting the need for affordable and accessible water for irrigation.

Eubanks said he had been working with officials to establish a water-loading bay closer to Back Flagaman, which would allow farmers to fill trucks and pickups without travelling long distances. He said three possible locations had been identified. He said the farmers’ group had also been saving to purchase a truck to help supply water to members, but a fire depleted its resources.

Despite the setbacks, Eubanks said the organisation was seeking to resume more frequent meetings while strengthening its efforts to support struggling farmers.

“We are trying to motivate them, but lack of money, fertiliser and seeds had made that task increasingly difficult,” he said.

albert.ferguson@gleanerjm.com