Sector specific recovery funds needed for farmers

Barbadians love chicken and with the sector earning this island US$200 million annually, steps must be put in place to protect it in the case of a natural disaster.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation’s Deputy Sub-regional Coordinator for the Caribbean Dr. Lystra Fletcher-Paul highlighted that in 2012 alone, 375 000 tonnes- 250 000 tonnes of which were produced locally, were consumed on the island and a further US $850 million invested in that industry.

“These figures suggest that if God forbid a natural disaster was to hit Barbados and the poultry industry was impacted there would be a significant loss of investment, food and nutrition security and livelihoods and I dare say this applies for many other classes of livestock,” she stated.

Speaking at the Animal Disaster Management Symposium hosted by the FAO and the Barbados Veterinary Association at Almond bay, Hastings on Thursday, she insisted that the information shared there would go a long way to providing information to other Caribbean islands in the area of disaster management for the livestock sector.

Also addressing this event, Chief Executive Officer of the Barbados Agricultural Society James Paul also highlighted the need for initiatives to be implemented to help farmers quickly recover after any disaster.

“We need to be very sector specific in terms of trying to ensure that at least some funds are available to people in particular sectors to help them get their feet up and it is not that expensive. Sometimes we talk about catastrophe funds and we get on as if you have to give a lot farmers but farmers are very innovative and will find ways of helping themselves when they need to, so in many cases like the fruit and vegetable sector, it may just be about providing seeds and in the case of the livestock sector it may be a little more difficult but they do come up with innovative ways in terms of dealing with these particular situations,” he noted. (JMB)