By Damion Mitchell, Staff ReporterTHE RURAL Agricultural Development Authority (RADA) reported yesterday that it has not yet been able to complete the assessment of agricultural farms destroyed during Hurricane Ivan, pushing back the Saturday, October 16 deadline, which had been set by Prime Minister P.J. Patterson.
Thomas Burton, RADA's deputy executive director, said his organisation needs an additional week to complete the assessment, noting that the lack of adequate transportation was posing a major problem.
NO VEHICLES
"In some of the larger parishes, the farms are scattered; they are not in one area and some of the assessors have to walk to these fields as they do not have vehicles," he said.
On Monday, Information Minister Burchell Whiteman told reporters following the weekly Cabinet meeting that the Prime Minister had requested "a certain urgency" in completing the surveys. He pointed out that an extended deadline would mean a longer period of suffering for farmers as many could not resume production without assistance.
RECOVERY EFFORT
According to Mr. Whiteman, the Office of National Recon-struction, mandated to spearhead the recovery effort, had reported that there were adequate resources in the Agriculture Ministry to undertake the assessments by Saturday.
Mr. Thomas said, however, that the assessors were in the final stages of the surveys in the respective parishes.
Initial estimates indicated that the agricultural sector had sustained just over $2.9 billion in damage with domestic agriculture alone accounting for $2.225 billion.
