Changing topics now.
Forest fires continue to rage across western and Southerner Belize, devouring vast tracts of lands, farms and valuable crops included.
This was brought home vividly today just outside Mafredi village in the Toledo District. That's where much of the 50 acres of Serendipity Farms was consumed by firing, laying waste to a million dollars in crops.
PLUS TV spoke to farm owner Lawrence Chavarria:
Lawrence Chavarria, Owner, Serendipity Farm
"Approximately 50 acres located right outside of Mafredi, one of the first parcel of land in the San Antonio Village. It consists of 15,000 cacao trees and which are already starting to produce. Last week we have harvested over 3,000 pounds of wet cacao. We have another 4,000 pounds on the farm that was left to harvest and it has been very devastating with this farm fire coming in from behind the Colombia Village from supposedly one of the slash and burn farmers that does the milpa system. At the moment there are still some fires on the farm and we are trying to control that."
Reporter
"What is the cost of a seedling?"
Lawrence Chavarria
"One seedling I would say starts off at $5."
Reporter
"And you have these trees in the ground for how many years now."
Lawrence Chavarria
"From 2016 we started off."
Reporter
"So 4 years you've been taking care of your farm, what is the estimated value of your farm right now?"
Lawrence Chavarria
"We are looking at least one million dollars based on the damages here at the moment."
Reporter
"Can you tell us how many trees you have on this farm?"
Lawrence Chavarria
"Approximately 14,000-15,000 trees. I just want to advise the public not to be burning any fire at the moment because there are a lot of farmers with a lot of investment and it's bad for the environment as well to be lighting fires and you could see the devastation."
"For me this farm is such a loss and have affected me and my family and my future and I could consider this worse than the Covid-19, whereby we had a lot of investment and this is detrimental to my future investment as well. At this moment I would like to plea to the whole community if they could please, anybody that is out there that could assist in agriculture and cacao farming; we are open to accept any help. I would also like to advise the general public by safe guarding the environment and forest fires and if you would see anybody lighting fire, please stop them and call the proper authorities, so we could stop this disaster that is happening with forest fires."
Those wanting to help can reach Chavarria at 614-5374.
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