The Caribbean Development Bank announced today that they have approved a loan for more than 1 million US dollars to the Belize Government to help cane farmers.

In a press release, the CDB says, quote, "One key component of the project is a Drought Recovery Scheme, a specially designed voucher programme, which will help farmers get needed inputs (planting material, fertilizers, and pesticides), and services such as land clearing and preparation. With the agriculture sector contributing up to 11% of GDP in Belize and the sugar industry a key part of the sector, the impact of the drought has been far-reaching, and negatively affected employment during 2019. Economic growth slowed, with Belize recording just 0.3% growth in 2019, compared with an average of 2% for the previous five years. The unemployment rate also jumped from 7.6% in April 2019 to 10.4% by September 2019." End quote.