OECS Commissioner: Dominica’s agriculture ‘ceases to exist’

Last updated: September 29, 2017 at 11:42 am

The agriculture sector in Dominica has been destroyed by Hurricane Maria, according to two agencies who have visited the island.

The category five storm struck the island on 18 September, devastating the population of just over 70,000.

Both the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) - which is leading the Caribbean Community’s (CARICOM) response to the disaster – and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) said that there was 100% destruction of agriculture on the island.

UNOCHA information shows that 25% of the workforce in Dominica depends on agriculture.

CDEMA said there was “severe damage” to farm housing, irrigation and infrastructure, feeder roads as well as crop and livestock production, in addition to forests reserves and coastal fishery.

Many feeder and farm roads are impassable resulting in loss of available food for both consumption and marketing. Loss of poultry and livestock were reported.

There were also reports of loss, damage or destruction of agricultural tools and infrastructure such as spades, forks, pruning shears, and greenhouses.

Food insecurity

Organisation of Eastern Caribbean (OECS) Commissioner and Grenada’s ambassador to CARICOM, Ambassador Patrick Antoine, visited the island earlier this week and painted a dire picture of the situation there generally, and put agriculture in perspective.

“Agriculture in Dominica, as we know it, now ceases to exist. I am not now talking about bananas. I am talking about trees, horticultural aspects of the ecosystem as we know it to be in Dominica, the Nature Island, most of those have been destroyed, he said.

More images showing the state of #Dominica following Hurricane Maria https://t.co/onFPE52a0X pic.twitter.com/AmUr0XY1Bg

— WIC News (@WIC_News) September 22, 2017

Imperial palms, mango, coconut and breadfruit trees, the perennials, are all gone, he reported.

“So for the first time, Dominica, is going to be facing, for the foreseeable future, unfortunately, a level of food insecurity that it hasn’t known before. And that is certainly something that has to be put before us.”

“Our OECS Community and the broader CARICOM family now have to get together with Dominica … to see how we try, very urgently to see how we can rehabilitate agriculture going forward. Let me tell you that the hurricane left nothing untouched.

“The root crops have been covered by alluvial material – stones and sand – in a way that makes it indistinguishable. All of those things are now gone.”