The concern for the future planting of the bean crop is real because the pest cannot be eradicated so a taskforce has been formed to devise a plan to manage the Asian bean thrip. Francisco Gutierrez, Acting Managing Director, BAHA “We are concerned and all measures and strategies have to be developed because the […]
Efforts to improve sheep husbandry continue. This week, the Central Farm Livestock Unit of the Ministry of Agriculture in collaboration with the Taiwan Technical Mission hosted a workshop for farmers from the Cayo District involved in sheep production. The training focused on general sheep breeding management, herd health and nutrition, including pasture management. Facilitators included […]
The Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Enterprise has received training materials from the Republic of China, Taiwan. The fifty-eight packages are in the form of flash drives loaded with information on general sheep management practices, commercial sheep and goat production, nutrition, breeding, and herd health. They will be distributed to livestock extension officers and […]
Farmers who have taken a double hit from the 2019 drought and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic are about to get some relief. The Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Enterprise has announced it is starting to release funds, via a voucher system, for phase two of its relief for registered farmers. Eligible farmers for this […]
The Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture, also known as IICA, is piloting a voluntary third-party quality assurance project in Belize and Honduras. Today, a virtual ceremony was held to officially launch the initiative that is expected to empower the private sector to set standards for food safety for public health and trade. BAHA Acting […]
The project will also look at legislative frameworks, capacity building efforts and public-private partnership opportunities to facilitate changes to strengthen the food security management system. Minister of Food Security Jose Abelardo Mai says three sectors will be targeted in this pilot project. Jose Abelardo Mai, Minister of Agriculture, Food Security & Enterprise “In the […]
On Thursday we told you how Mahogany Chocolate Limited, a craft chocolate business celebrating its shipment of hundred and fifty-thousand dollars worth of chocolate products to the U.S. When we spoke with company head Louis Choco, he told us there are many opportunities in this industry – including tonnes of cacao bean just waiting to […]
The Ministry of Blue Economy and Civil Aviation, after consultation with the Fisheries Department, announced last Friday that the close of the lobster season has been extended for another two weeks to February twenty-eighth. The decision was made after a request was tabled by the fishermen cooperatives for an adjustment of the Fisheries Regulation. The […]
The area is called “The Maya Golden Landscape,” and it’s the site of an exciting partnership between those working to maintain Belize’s healthy natural ecosystems and southern cacao farmers. News Five’s reporter Andrea Polanco recently joined personnel from the Ya’axche Conservation Trust and the Ministry of Sustainable Development to see how farming in this protected […]
If you have the budget, it’s a great idea to treat your Valentine to some lobster this weekend as the 2020-2021 Lobster Season winds down on Sunday at midnight and reopens on June fifteenth. Once the season closes and you are found with lobster in your possession, you will be charged. But this closure, according […]
As the season comes to a close, the Fisheries Department reports that lobster production is up for the 2020-2021 period, with seven hundred thousand pounds of lobster tail processed. According to Fisheries Officer Mauro Gongora, the lobster sector is stable and has been performing well. Annually, lobster brings in revenues of just under thirty million […]
One month after he was hired, the Sugar Cane Production Committee Manager was fired! On Tuesday night, Naim Cal was given his walking papers; terminated on the spot. The S.C.P.C., according to some in the industry, plays an essential role between the mill and sugarcane. What’s important to note is that Cal was named manager […]
So, as you heard just now, Naim Cal is out from the Sugar Cane Production Committee. But who will replace him? That’s what we asked the chair of the Sugar Industry Control Board today. But this termination, as we told, is not the first. On the day the crop started at the end of December, […]
In a virtual press conference today, Santander announced that they have had to push back their harvesting for this season. It was scheduled to start some weeks ago, but due to the rains last month, they have only just begun to harvest the sugarcane today. According to the company’s officials, despite the challenges of climate-related […]
Santander explained that the unprecedented rains last year wreaked havoc on the sugarcane in the fields and made conditions difficult for the company. Today, the company’s Chief Executive Officer and Chief Finance Officer spoke about the cost of climate change on their operations and productions. They estimate that the rains last November will cost the […]
Another matter discussed at today’s press conference is one that Santander says will deliver a hit on Belize’s sugar producers. According to the company, Brexit – the official departure of the UK from the European Union – has never been adequately addressed regarding the impacts on sugar producers. The principals at Santander say that the […]
Last month, the Government of Belize settled a trade dispute out of court with St. Kitts and Nevis. Last year, Belize sued St. Kitts and Trinidad and Tobago because they were importing brown sugar from outside of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy without paying the forty percent common external tariff. As a result of […]
Ya’axche Conservation Trust and the European Nature Trust have partnered to promote climate-resilient farming techniques to ensure food security and protect natural resources such as forests. It has been more than a decade since Y.C.T. began to work with eighty farmers to get them to see the value in sustainable farming practices. So, as a […]
Ten farmers from Mayan communities in Toledo went on an organic farming tour in the Mountain Pine Ridge today. Many of the farmers are in the livestock business but also practice small scale farming. For the past ten years, these farmers have been working with Ya’xche Conservation Trust to find more sustainable means of farming, […]
Minister of Agriculture, Food Security and Enterprise Abelardo Mai has been on a countrywide tour in the past weeks. He has been visiting farmers and other producers in the agro-productive sector. That tour took him to Central Farm today to learn more about the sheep and goat breeding project. It’s a joint venture between Taiwan […]
Tensions between the Valley of Peace Farmers Association and Valley of Peace Farms Limited got high last week. The farmers are blaming the company for damaging their crops. Chairman of the Association, Ever Blandon, says that Valley of Peace Farms Limited carried out aerial spraying, using chemicals that eventually killed their crops. Manager of Valley […]
When Minister of Agriculture, Food Security and Enterprise announced that he was looking at protectionist policies in order to promote domestic producers, it wasn’t welcomed with open arms. Some sections of the public were worried that their favourite imported brands will disappear from store shelves, but Minister Jose Mai says that’s not the aim of […]
Cacao farmers in San Jose Village in Toledo are up in arms because they say that the cacao associations are pushing them to undersell their beans. According to the Tzub family, they have thousands of pounds of cacao beans on their hands because they can’t afford to sell for thirty-five cents per pound. Reports are […]
So, some of the San Jose Cacao farmers are not happy with the associations – those are the Toledo Cacao Growers Association and the Maya Mountain Cacao. Today, we reached out to the Chairman of the T.C.G.A., Justino Peck, who shared that since December, they have been recording an exceptionally high production. He explained that […]
When the Minister of Agriculture, Food Security and Enterprise, Jose Mai, told the House on Friday that he favored limiting import permits for certain milk and cheeses on the market, it caused quite a stir. Many took to social media to voice their concerns about not having access to their preferred products. Well, it seems […]
