One thousand banana and plantain farmers are receiving much needed hurricane relief thanks to the European Union.
The farmers are all from the eastern parishes of St. Mary, Portland and St. Thomas, which were ravished by Hurricane Sandy in October last year.
The damage inflicted to these banana dependent areas put the banana crop, a crucial element of Jamaican food security at risk.
The official handing over ceremony for the funds was held on Wednesday January 30-2013 at the Trinity Boxing plant in St. Mary with the attendance of several MPs,from the affected parishes.
The funds some 13 point 5 million Jamaican dollars will be used to purchase desperately needed fertiliser to shorten the recovery period of the banana crop, as well as insecticide to mitigate further damage by the borer infestation, which usually surges in the wake of a hurricane.
The project which is funded through the European Union Banana Support Programme EUBSP has begun and is being overseen by the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA), the Banana Board and the All Island Banana Growers Association (AIGBA).
The relief is part of the EU's ongoing commitment to the banana industry disaster mitigation and resilience which includes providing seed funding in 2007 for the Banana Board's Catastrophe Fund.
Of the nations nearly 220-thousand farmers, only 266 are registered with the Catastrophe fund as at 2011.
EU Ambassador Paolo Amadei at the function held at the Trinity Boxing plant in St. Mary says her organisation is proposing more agriculture insurance investment at all levels, and she pledged that their would be more work emanating from the EU's Jamaican contingent to build that area.
RADA CEO Harold Spaulding cited the intervention as a timely response to the banana crisis.
He said that RADA is fully cognisant of the magnitude of the destruction wrought by Sandy and subsequent to the fallout- RADA has been and will be in the field full-time as it relates to this issue to ensure the proper and speedy resuscitation of the sector.
Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries Roger Clarke who signed the TCP which sets out the parametres for how the funding should be used, urged more farmers to log on to the Catastrophe Fund, for their and the sector's benefit. As this will go a far way in rebounding in as quick a fashion as possible from the various threats to the nation's food security.
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