| Bittersweet News for Sugarcane Farmers |
| Thu, August 27, 2020 |
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The sugarcane farmers of the north will also receive a little less than
3 million dollars in relief funding under this program, and it will
complement the 2 million dollars they will get access to under the CDB
Enhancing Sugarcane Famers Resilience to Natural Hazard Events Loan
motion, which parliament passed last month.
You'll remember how the Opposition criticized the government saying
that this drought relief program is not nearly enough to ease the
suffering of the farmers in the Corozal and Orange Walk Districts.
Well, Hulse said this Farmer Assistance Program will bolster that
CDB-funded program with more money:
Hon. Godwin Hulse - Ministry of Agriculture
"Couple weeks ago, we passed in the House, a sugar cane relief motion from the CDB, which is 1 million US dollars, or 2 million Belize dollars, and there were a lot of talks that it's not enough, etc. You know the politics take effect. Well, I am pleased to advise that we understood the maximum we could do under that then drought-relief program. And we are sad that it took so long, but we're working with international financial institutions and you have to cross all the T's and dot all the I's. And the CDB required that we do that, again using our BAIMS, register of cane farmers that we had. And so, we're pleased to announce that we are just about to procure 60% of that million dollars, which 1.2 million Belize dollars. We should be disbursing that in September, but in addition to that - and that will affect some 3,644 cane farmers. In addition to that 2 million dollars, under this program that we're launching today, we have another million US dollars for cane farmers. So, that's another 2 million dollars. That makes 4 million dollars for cane farmers, but in addition to that, we're also giving out that 500-dollar in which some 3,000 - almost - cane farmers will benefit. And that will take the amount of money to be disbursed to cane farmers to close to 5 million dollars. It will be 2 from CDB, 2 from this World Bank, by virtue of vouchers, and the cash transfer is $475,500 US, which is $900,000 Belize basically"
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