Some farmers in St Lucy are reporting heavy losses after Sunday’s deluge flooded their fields and ruined much of the crops.
Melons, onions, lettuce, pumpkins, squash and cucumber were among the crops destroyed by the nine inches of rain that swept across the island.
At the Spring Hall Land Lease Project, and in Mount Poyer, fields that once bore a bountiful harvest resembled marshes of water and mud banks.
Farmers told the DAILY NATION that until the waterlogged soils have dried, they cannot venture into them, neither by foot nor with machinery.
Samuel Holder, who farms 12 acres in Mount Poyer, described the waters as spanning 200 feet wide and flowing so fiercely that they flooded his pig pen and washed away the majority of his cucumbers and sweet peppers.
“The only thing that survived was the finger squash, and that starting to turn in colour a little because finger squash is one of these crops that don’t like much rain. So as soon as the rain starts up here, they start to play the fool. I might be able to save it because the water didn’t settle, but if there’s another period of rain coming that will give it some problems,” he said.
Holder said he could not begin to estimate his losses.
“Put it this way, most of our crops are decimated for the holiday season, so we’re basically going to be out of food . . . . We are not going to get in cultivation, not till probably another two, three weeks down the road,” he said.
Holder said while his losses were a result of an act of God, there should be some assistance provided to those affected.
Fertiliser
“If they’re going to compensate farmers, I believe that they should. It can be by giving you back some seeds, fertilisers or even a monetary thing,” he said.
Radesh Indar, who farms at Spring Hall, estimated losing $5 000 worth of onions and watermelons.
He said his field was flooded enough to ride a jet ski through it when he first laid eyes on it Monday.
“Hopefully, we can get some light and we don’t get any more rain. You have to wait to let it dry off and then you can go again because it is still raining these nights. But for now, you can’t do any work.
“Whatever we do we’re just picking what we can, because its really hard to walk through the fields,” Indar said.
He too, is hoping Government can compensate farmers with fertiliser or seedlings.
Other farmers reported being hampered by the flooded fields which put their harvest on hold.
Chief executive officer of the Barbados Agricultural Society, James Paul, said the losses were devastating and crops such as onions, watermelon and sweet peppers are expected to be scarce.
“A lot of acreage would have been prepared for the onion crop to start planting around this time. A lot of that now you have to do over because what has happened is that the drip lanes that are utilised were actually taken out to the fields by the water, and you have to engage in ground preparation again,” he explained.
Ground preparation
Paul said that accounting for seeds and ground preparation, these recovery efforts can incur costs of $10 000 for farmers.
“You are spending over $10 000 to $20 000 and then you have to wait six months, and, you know, just that amount in terms of ground preparation, you now have to do it right back over,” he said.
He added they were hoping for sunny days to dry out the soaked fields.
Meanwhile, president of the Barbados Association of Retailers, Vendors and Entrepreneurs, Alister Alexander, said flooding was a perennial issue affecting farmers.
“Farming is very hard and it is very hard for farmers generally. Even in the best of circumstances, they have great challenges when it comes to pests, when it comes the cost of inputs and labour. There’s a lot that is against farmers, and when you have a situation where they can be wiped out every year, then we have to do something. We have to find a solution.
“We need to get a handle on the answers for agriculture. We can’t be reactionary all the time. It is time that as an independent sovereign nation we approach it like those who are first world, where you understand the importance of your agricultural sector to even national security,” he said.
Alexander called on Government to set up a national agricultural task force that would look into the development of the sector, as well as a financial bailout for farmers. (JRN)
