Santo Domingo — The torrential rains from Hurricane Melissa caused losses to banana plantations and crops in the Southern region.
“Given that the storm caused damage throughout the country, we want to ensure that we are not among the last to receive assistance again,” declared agronomist and agricultural producer Manuel Antonio Pérez Canario.
As a leader of farmers’ organizations in a large area of the Enriquillo region, Pérez outlined an assessment of the effects of the rains that accompanied Melissa in a territorial area demarcated between the provinces of Barahona, Azua, San Juan, Independencia, and Bahoruco.
He stated that Melissa caused damage in all these areas and urgently requested the disbursements to rehabilitate the irrigation canals so that in 15 days, the water will flow and the crops will be irrigated again.
According to a statement, the producers’ spokesperson referred to the need for “well-rationalized” financing, taking into account producers who have suffered losses, without naming specific brigades; instead, it should be distributed among themselves.
He also demanded that the inter-parcel roads that are not in use be rehabilitated to avoid crop losses and support producers with fumigation campaigns against sigatoka and nematodes in bananas.
Banana plantations
Within the area of the plot dispensed by Pérez are included crops of eggplants, chili peppers, yucca, and other minor items that would have suffered the same fate as those of bananas, plantains, and curly bananas.
But his analysis focuses on the case of the bananas that in the capital are called “barahoneros.”
In Tamayo, 3,850 small producers cultivate 200,850 tareas of bananas; “the main area of these plantations is in the Enriquillo region.”
The lack of heavy machinery to clean the Altamira, San Ramón, “la regola nueva” canals, and the Hondura settlement is also essential, along with the result of the streams that swept away banana plantations and carried away the vegetation layer, in addition to river flows that run through the plots in production.
“After the rains end, the soil remains wet, the plantations with 7- and 8-month-old banana trees are damaged by the humidity, and the old banana groves, now that the drought is coming, suffer root rot and fall over. Furthermore, they are then affected by yellow sigatoka, black sigatoka, chocolate blight, or stem rot. Melissa caused damage throughout the country, and we don’t want to be the last ones affected, as always, “Pérez reiterated.