St Lucy producers recover but warn of vegetable shortage

After declaring a disaster following a weekend of heavy rains which resulted in severe damage to their fields, farmers at the Spring Hall Land Lease Project in St Lucy, say they have begun the recovery process.

This morning when Barbados TODAY visited several of the holdings, which were submerged in water last month, some farmers revealed that the damage was not as bad as they thought, as they were able to salvage a number of the root crops such as sweet potatoes.

However, they explained that this Christmas, customers cannot expect to see many sweet peppers, cucumbers and tomatoes coming from the project, which grows a large portion of Barbados’ agricultural produce.

“The truth is that a lot of farmers planted a lot of sweet potatoes because there wasn’t enough water to try your hand at the other crops. In the first days when we saw the water covering the lower part of the field, we were really concerned. A good bit of the sweet potatoes rotted in the ground but we were able to still save some,” said Ricardo Gustav, who pointed out that reaping the potatoes was easier because the soil was still somewhat moist.

Ricardo Gustav

His father, Raphael Gustav, explained they were among the lucky ones because their land is on an elevation. He revealed that his neighbor lost everything, as the nine inches of rain converted his field into a pond. However, he noted that farmers are resilient and determined to rebound from this setback.

“The farmers out here are resilient and with or without Government’s help we are determined to bounce back because we have no choice. This is how we pay our bills; this is how we survive and we do not have a choice but to bounce back. There are some farmers who would have lost their top soil and irrigation systems but for the most part persons are trying to replant crops,” he said.

Barbados TODAY also visited the farm of former Minister of the Environment Denis Lowe where one worker, who referred to herself only as Tennisha, explained that while the replanting effort has begun in earnest, it has been tough going. She noted that plants were still beset by some type of fungus adding to the cost of the already expensive recovery effort.

“We were hit really hard and in some places where we have tried to plant back, the crops are not growing properly. A number of the plants got infected with some sort of blight, so we had to spend a lot of money treating them. We lost a lot of tomatoes and other crops which would be in the thousands of dollars. The farmer just below lost everything and we have not heard anything about a plan to help out the farmers,” she said.

Tennisha

Last month Minister of Agriculture Indar Weir told Barbados TODAY  that Government would need to do a thorough assessment before making a determination on short-term assistance. He also sought to downplay the extent of crop losses, suggesting that root crops ought to have survived the water submersion.

Weir said: “There are only certain crops that would be damaged in floods and the others we would have to do an assessment on those. Crops such as sweet potatoes, yams and so on are not damaged by floods because when the water runs off and the place dries out those crops will still live.”

colvillemounsey@barbadostoday.bb