BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – OFFICIALS from the Department of Agriculture are expected to be out in the fields today (Sept. 21) assessing further damage to the sector as a result of the passage of the second Category 5 storm – Hurricane Maria.
That comes as the agriculture sector was one of several areas of the Federation’s economy that was significant impacted by Hurricane Irma.
According to reports presented by Prime Minister Dr. the Hon. Timothy Harris at his September 14, 2017 press conference, the damage was in excess of EC$10M.
Speaking with SKNVibes yesterday (Sept. 20) outside the Basseterre Market where he was checking to find out if any water damage was done to the facility, Director of Agriculture Melvin James explained that early indications pointed to water getting into the market because of the amount of sand blow onto the Bay Road.
He indicated that officials from the Department would be going out into the fields today.
“We are going out in the fields tomorrow to look at what has taken place. It is difficult at the moment to assess whether the losses are more or less. We haven’t had any kind of feedback; we have not gone any place as yet, but certainly we would be going and make an assessment.
“For our sake, I hope it is less…I do not have a means to make an informed kind of judgement, and we would begin our work tomorrow.”
Shortly after the Prime Minister’s press conference, Minister of Agriculture, Hon. Eugene Hamilton told SKNVibes that officials had seen damage to crops and vegetation, livestock and farms.
“The breakdown is somewhere in the vicinity of $3 million for the Fisheries Sector. The building in Dieppe Bay that houses the fisheries section that they have there, suffered 1,200sq of roofing and it also suffered some equipment losses. So some of the costs have gone towards that.
“We had people who were fishermen who have lost some of their fishing equipment. Those that are out in the water, the fishing traps, there were some boats that got some damage,” Hamilton explained.
Addressing crop losses, the Minister stated that the Federation, specifically St. Kitts, lost a lot of fruit trees both at the government and private levels.
“Most of the fruit trees had some damage.”
To that end, he stressed that it would take some time for St. Kitts and Nevis to get back to its pre-hurricane position.
However, he was adamant that it would have an impact on the local sector, suggesting that the Federation could be dependent on imports.
The Minister was more optimistic that people would have stored enough local produce so that the country would not be dependent on imports.
