Rebuilding of Agriculture Sector commences in St. Vincent & Grenadines

St. Vincent and Grenadines: After the hard hit of Hurricane Beryl, the Caribbean region is taking significant recovery efforts aiming at being back to the normal state. Significant efforts are being taken for reestablishing the agriculture sector.

The Agriculture and Fisheries sectors are becoming increasingly vulnerable to the increased impacts of the vagaries of climate change. Such a condition has raised the risks that deal with food security in the country.

The sector has seen a lot in the past four years, and now for the recovery of present times loss, the authorities have introduced, Recovery of Beryl 2024. Past few projects dealing with the same are as follows-

• Recovery post Covid-19 supply chain disruption
• Recovery from Freak Storm 2020
• Recovery of volcanic eruptions of La Soufriere 2021
• Recovery of Tropical Storm Fiona
• Recovery of Tropical Storm Bret 2023
• Recovery from drought 2020, and 2024

Considerably, a trail of destruction by Beryl on the coastal and southern areas of the island which includes Canouan, Mayreau and Union Island has impacted farm and fish enterprises have encountered the damages with significant losses.

The farmers and fisherfolk in the Grenadines are grappling with the considerable damage in the ways of loss of crops, property, livestock, fishing boats, equipment and gears and their livelihood.

The stress laid on the agricultural imports will be magnified with the consequences for the food availability and increased food prices. With the devastated state of the agriculture sector would apparently result in the loss of produce and fish landing.

And, to bear with the major losses, the government of the country with all the dedication and commitment is providing assistance. The authorities boosted the protective measures so the conditions can be taken to the normal periods.

The Ministry is considerably committed towards providing temporary shortages and building back ideas to strengthen the resilience of the food chains. Significantly, the agriculture ministry has allocated the supplementary estimates for the year 2024, amounting to $21,500,000 which is divided as $14,000,000 as Recurrent expenditure and $7,500,000 as Capital expenditure.