Opposition Leader Comments on G.O.B.’s Plan to Assist Farmers

John Briceño

While this is not the first occasion that drought has affected the agricultural sector, it is certainly the worse. The government’s plan to work with Central Bank and local banks to offer financial relief to farmers and by extension six thousand families spread across twenty-three communities is welcomed by Opposition Leader, John Briceño. Briceño; however, believes more needs to be done to ensure uninterrupted production.

John Briceño, Leader of the Opposition

“A few years ago we had a massive drought also that affected us in the north. The government passed a provisional budget of thirty million dollars and our farmers in the north did not get a single dollar. The government just passed several millions at the last house meeting.”

Hipolito Novelo

“Well the Central Bank is working with commercial banks here in Belize to do just that; to help farmers up in the north and as well in the agriculture sector. Is that something that you welcome and applaud the government for?”

John Briceño

“Of course. It certainly helps but it is more than just ease up on the payments or just pay interests payments. Many of our farmers were wiped out, people that were growing vegetables, they have lost most of it. For instance look at the Mennonites, they have lost thousands of acres of rice as one example. Cane farmers right now, it is estimated that maybe as much as fifty percent of the crop is going to be affected. This is serious and that is just a start. The government needs to do more than that. The government needs to make money available to the productive sector and to these industries that have played a very important, a key role to the development of this country.”

We’ll have much more from the Prime Minister’s press conference later in the newscast.