The Valley of Peace, Spanish Lookout, and Banana Bank farmers are saying goodbye to bumpy rides after the upgrading of their express road. These villagers travel frequently, taking their produce all over the country, traversing rocky roads to do it. But now, it's smooth sailing, which will mean more profits and higher-quality veggies.
Our news team was at the inauguration ceremony today and Courtney Menzies has this story.
The farmers of Cayo South have had to lug their vegetables down dirt roads for decades, but today, the Banana Bank - Farmers Express Road was finally inaugurated.
It's about 6 and a half miles of paved road, and while it may seem like just another street, for the residents, it translates to access to their homes and farms.
The Infrastructure Development Minister - also happens to be their area rep - and he pulled out all the bells and whistles for today's inauguration. He says that the whole country benefits from projects like these.
Julius Espat, Minister of Infrastructure Dev. & Housing
"The wear and tear on their vehicles was a major factor. The bringing out of their produce to Belize City and Cayo and San Ignacio and Belmopan makes it more economically viable for them. But it's not only the village, it's all, if you notice we're surrounded by large farmers, the Spanish Lookout community benefits, Belize benefits and that's what infrastructure does and so it's an honor for me to be able to put a team together that has been able to do this."
"I couldn't give priority to this road in the initial years because we had to serve others but knowing that the day would come and so we did it, I think we did it responsibly, we did it by phases, a little at a time, and then we start looking for partners and then we got Cabinet's approval for a portion, we got the Mennonite community for a portion, the large scale farmers and then MIDH. It's a good feeling to know that if you work together you can achieve what you want."
And the Minister of Natural Resources shared his sentiments, explaining that this level of access and infrastructure uplifts and empowers.
Cordel Hyde, Minister of Natural Resources
"It's a big deal. The minister spoke about the wear and tear on people's vehicles. That assuming you have a vehicle. When you don't have a vehicle, it's even harder to get out. Imagine being trapped in a community and can't get out to get to school or get to work or get to the doctor. These roads count in those instances but even more so when you are from the productive sector and you're farmers and you're able to get your produce to the market and a much cheaper cost than you did before. It means more profits, more opportunities for your family, more opportunities to send your children further in school and to build better houses and live better lives because ultimately that is the goal, ultimately, the goal is to provide better for your children, that your children have a better standard of living than you've had. That's the ultimate test of parenting and that's the ultimate challenge of the government to help families realize that, help families fulfill the fullest potential for their children."
Julius Espat, Minister of Infrastructure Dev. & Housing
"The value of land is more now. So you have good and bad. I am explaining to the villagers that now they have to understand that their land is more valuable and other people, wealthier people would want to purchase it so they now have to decide what to do and the idea is to empower them. I believe in empowering people and land gives you power and infrastructure facilitates the land to increase in value so it's a plus-plus-plus. And that's what we try to do to make sure that our people countrywide benefit from the work that we do so we could improve their lives and quality of life."
And now those villagers are one step closer to land security:
Cordel Hyde, Minister of Natural Resources
"My ministry is oftentimes behind here because my ministry has to make sure that the communities here get their land papers, make sure that they have access for to lands for housing. In fact, we were back here to make sure that a bunch, over 100 young people, first time landowners got their lands so that they could get houses because as you know, all across the country, a lot of people have been stuck living in their parents yards and all kinds of stuff because they don't have the kind of access and to help the farmers here to legitimize them because lots of them are on farms without land papers, without any kind of document, without any kind of legality and so it's about making sure that they're able to survey their lands, survey it for them in some instances, and make sure they get their purchase price, get their documents so that they can mortgage that if they want to do that, they can send their children to school, they can start their small business, they can expand their farm, it's a big farming community so they do a lot of farming but you need your documents, you need your assets to be legal and that's where we come in."
The entire road is cost 3.7 million dollars, which is approximately $750,000 per mile.
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