7 News Belize

Drought Relief Ready For Next Year
posted (January 16, 2020)

And keeping it on the sugar industry, we asked Agriculture Minister Godwin Hulse if the sugar cane farmers will benefit from the drought relief measures that the Government announced several months ago.

You'll remember that in September of last year, the Barrow Government declared a partial state of emergency to address approximately 50 million dollars in collective losses that the nation's farmers suffered in the drought.

All farmers were supposed to get access to relief funding arranged by the Government, and so we asked about cane farmers and their share. Hulse told us that the relief will be applied to next year's crop when the cane farmers are trying to replant. He explained why:

Hon. Godwin Hulse
"The first problem we had, if I may say so, is just to try and register all the farmers. I think that is a legend that I've said that. You have to know who it is, and so we completed that exercise. Farmers continue to register, but we cut it off at the end of October. That gave our team a chance to categorize it, to look at the farms, and then, we had to send that list to CDB, who is providing the 2 million dollars. It's a government loan, but it won't be a loan to the farmers. We are gonna carry that. So, that list has gone. CDB is reviewing it. There was a call for an intervention by FAO. These agencies, of course, want to make sure that you're accurate, proper, and not just trying to stacks numbers, and just say well, so many farmers. So, we had to give details. That took a little while. So, we've done that now. We've sent that off, and hopefully, in a couple of weeks' time, we should get it back. But remember, it will not affect this crop because the farmers - it's the crop that's coming. We had looked at in terms of trimesters when we were looking first. It said that we were gonna support the last trimester, which was the cane that was cut last, in the last third. That's the one that we were gonna try and do a boost. The farmers decided no, don't bother with that. So, that's why we're going for the new crop."

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