Farmers Get Assistance in the Valley of Peace
Over the past two years, flooding and drought have ravaged vegetable fields in the Valley of Peace. Less than a year ago, the country’s largest cabbage producers lost hundreds of thousands of heads of cabbage to floods leaving them struggling to make ends meet. At the time, the Valley of Peace Farmers Association appealed to the government for help for them to keep planting. Well, G.O.B. is now offering assistance to thirty-one farmers through the Resilient Rural Belize Program’s Matching Grant Fund. On Monday, government officials and the Valley of Peace farmers signed an agreement for the construction of a climate resilient office and climate smart seedling nursery, packing and storage center with equipment and irrigation equipment. The agreement also provides for technical assistance and capacity building to help them improve the management and marketing of their operations.
Nerie Sanz
Nerie Sanz, Interim Programme Manager, Resilient Rural Belize Programme
“This association is interested in receiving assistance in the production of cabbage and onions using innovating manner to build this resilience to all the climate change that we see happening; the lots of rain; the drainage with the drought ; irrigation and of course capacity building. The total funding for this matching grant fund is approximately two hundred and sixty-one thousand dollars. And of course for the farmers to have their buy-in and ownership they will contribute ten percent in cash and five percent in kind of their labour.”
Jose Abelardo Mai
Jose Abelardo Mai, Minister of Agriculture
“This falls within the scope of our agriculture policy; supporting the farmers in this area. The Valley of Peace Farmers are very productive group of people. They contribute a lot to, I should describe it as ‘import substitution.’ If they produce cabbage we don’t have to import and so they do with other produce. So, providing them with the assistance needed for irrigation and so on will definitely help us to meet our goal which is to import less and produce more for our country.”
Reporter
“So, what kind of technical assistance will the Ministry be offering?”
Jose Abelardo Mai
“The canal you see there, the irrigation canal was designed by our team at Central Farm. They came here and did the plan and guided the process. Secondly, we have the extension officers on the ground who are here providing the farmers with technical assistance like controlling diseases, controlling weeds, variety selection, marketing information and so on.”
The project is being funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development and the Green Climate Fund.
