Hugh MartinTHE OFFICIAL estimate of the damage to the Agricultural sector by Hurricane Ivan is said to be $6.7 billion. That is approximately 30 per cent of the overall estimate of damage to the country thus making the sector the most severely affected. Evidence of this can easily be seen when travelling through the rural parishes in the fallen trees, flattened fields, flooded plantations and shattered farm houses. The effects are beginning to be felt in the shortages of vegetables and fruits.
One major Kingston supermarket chain ran out of eggs early last weekend and cho-chos could not be found anywhere. But perhaps the greatest damage is not yet seen nor assessed. There are large numbers of plants still standing; fruit trees, forest trees, legumes, vines, that are not as well as they appear. They managed to remain erect but what has been the effect on their roots, their internal structure, their leaves?
During the hurricane, I watched the battering endured by three coconut trees and a mango tree and marvelled that they were still standing the next day. The mango tree was almost neatly pruned, but while all the coconut trees retained their leaves they drooped in obvious exhaustion. They retained some of their young nuts also but not for long as each day you could see new ones on the ground beneath them. The point is the post-hurricane trauma that many persons have been and are being treated for was also experienced by these plants and will have a tremendous effect on their performance in the short, as well as the long term.
I am a great lover of avocado (pear) and managed to obtain a few in the early days after Ivan. In almost every case what appeared to be a perfect fruit on the outside when cut open was a complete mess inside. My overseas visitor, returning from a trip to St. Elizabeth this week brought back a beauty of a watermelon. Anticipating a really great treat we sliced it open and to our dismay found, not the expected juicy red interior but a thick cream-coloured rind and a thin pale-pink centre encrusted with a mass of black seeds. It will be like that with a number of fruits for a while until the plants have recovered from the trauma.
GREEN BANANAS
Happily, green bananas which have been plentiful on the market, have not suffered in that way. This is simply because the banana plant did not offer much resistance to the heavy winds but went down quickly, thus protecting the near mature bunch from much battering. While these fruits would not be suitable for the export trade because of the scarring, they are fit for local consumption and for the banana chips industry. The banana industry will recover within eight to nine months and hopefully will recapture its export market that had been picking up before the hurricane. But crops like citrus, coffee and coconuts will be on the long-time recovery ward. The sugar cane fields will straighten up soon and look good as new growth takes place but that will be bad for the upcoming sugar crop as the sugar quality will definitely be adversely affected. The fields that were flooded and remained under water for a prolonged period will certainly not contribute much to the next crop.
All this is such a pity as the attractive price for sugar that now obtains will never be seen again after 2005. Most vegetables which are now in short supply will be back before the Christmas season as most are short-term crops requiring from six to twelve weeks from planting to maturity. But we're not going to see a lot of Gungo (pigeon) peas because most of the bigger plants will not have recovered from post-Ivan stress. There should not be any shortages in crops such as carrots, coco, and yams in season and perhaps even dasheen as their above-ground foliage being pretty low would not have been affected by the wind, and as tubers would be safe from everything except prolonged flooding. However they are not usually grown in the flood-prone areas.
I am sceptical about the arguments coming out of Trelawny that there will be a shortage of yams because the tubers should be sufficiently close to maturity before Ivan blew the vines over. As far as the assistance to farmers in the recovery effort is concerned, I understand that distribution of planting material, fertilisers and pesticides will begin as soon as next week to farmers who qualify. However, no one will receive assistance above a maximum of $10,000. Executive Director of the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA) Albert Shand told me that his officers, having completed the assessment of damage, are now engaged in the detailed assessment of individual farms to determine the level and nature of assistance. RADA and the Ministry of Agriculture must be commended on the speed of their response. This has not always been the case, so kudos to them this time.
Hugh Martin is a communication specialist and farm broadcaster who may be reached at humar@cwjamaica.com.
