The Ministry of Agriculture, in collaboration with the Police Department, is hosting its fourth annual Youth Engage in Agriculture Summer Camp. The two-week event kicked off on Monday at the National Agriculture and Trade Showground in Belmopan. The interactive summer camp treats the Cayo and Belize District participants to educational and fun activities. Today, we […]
Residents of Chan Pine Ridge Village in Orange Walk say they have been greatly affected by air pollution emitted by the neighboring B.S.I. sugar factory. Villagers formed the Chan Pine Ridge Environmental Committee which is headed by Teresita Torres. According to Torres, the ashes emitted by factory contain chemicals which are affecting their health. Torres […]
For almost a decade, the Fisheries Department along with its partners has been working on amendments to the Fisheries Bill. The amendments to the bill, if approved and enacted, are to more effectively and efficiently enforce fisheries regulations, as well as to encourage sustainable fisheries management. The amendments to the bill also seek to protect […]
The European Union wrapped up its two million Euros project in the south today. The project started a year and a half ago with the goal to teach banana farmers about soil fertility management; increase the soil fertility in banana sector to improve banana production; and to enhance UB’s micro-propagation lab to improve production of […]
The number of visitors to this year’s agric was down this year. Still yet, there were the usual activities such as the rodeo and the promotion by businesses. The agricultural sector displayed a wide range of items from nurseries to cattle and the shrimp industry. News Five’s Duane Moody has the sights and sounds. […]
The Belize Agricultural Health Authority and Ministry of Agriculture is advising that if you haven’t vaccinated your livestock against blackleg in the last six months you must do so quickly. Rabies, which is a highly fatal disease that affects all mammals, can also be prevented through the vaccine. Affected animals will usually show nervous signs, […]
To meet the female farmer of the year, we went to Selena village, a small farming community located to the back of Spanish Lookout. There we met fifty-year-old mom and grand-mother Ana Eloisa Morales. She, with the support of her family, has cultivated fifteen acres of land. The remaining ten acres of her property remain […]
The male farmer of the year is Dan Isai Lopez of San Antonio village in the Cayo District. Lopez says he comes from a family of farmers and ever since he was a young boy, he wanted to have his own farm. Well, about twelve years ago that dream became a reality. Today, he has […]
Three Honduran fishermen were busted over the weekend for illegally fishing within the Spawning Aggregation Zone at the Gladden Spit and Silk Cayes Marine Reserve in southern Belize. The trio: Edwin Carcamo Banegas, Hector Rodriguez Martinez and Wilford Machado were in a boat named Angelica when they were spotted by a patrol of SEA Rangers […]
If you like conch fritters, conch soup or conch ceviche, you may want to enjoy these dishes before the end of this month. That is because the conch season is closing two months early. The Belize Fisheries Department says that this is because the quota for the queen conch fishery has been met. So, what […]
One of the concerns that have been raised about the harvesting of the queen conch is the use of the shell size to determine maturity. The Fisheries Department says that while some believe that lip thickness may be a better way to indicate maturity, the method used in Belize is considered sustainable because the conch […]
Earlier this week we told you about some history making bananas in the south. Two plots were planted on two different farms and they are just about ready to be harvested. So what’s so special about those bananas? Well, those bananas we eat in Belize and those that are exported are actually from small plants […]
The agro-productive sector remains a key feature in the annual national budget and is an area of particular interest for Orange Walk South Area Representative Jose Abelardo Mai, who is an agronomist. During his presentation, Mai focused on the overall performance of the agriculture industry and government’s failure to support local farmers in recovering from […]
Belize’s bananas are said to be some of the best on the market. They have a high demand in Europe and right here at home they make for healthy and tasty snack. And while the bananas are in planted in our soil, the little plants or meristems, as they are called, are actually not from […]
Since the beginning of the week, News Five has been taking an in-depth look at the state of Belize’s conch fishery. There have been serious concerns raised about enforcement of fisheries regulations in various hotspots, including Zone Three in the waters of southern Belize. Tonight, the Fisheries Department responds to those concerns, discussing the existing […]
The Ministry of Agriculture says the importation of a quantity of broccoli and cauliflower will be allowed later this month through the Belize Marketing and Development Corporation. According to a release, this is because production of the seasonal vegetables is at fifty percent at this time of the year. The weekly demand for cauliflower is […]
Last month, we shared a story on the economic benefits of migrant-founded businesses like Quality Poultry Products in Spanish Lookout. The poultry producer was also recognized with a cover story for a digital publication called Business View Caribbean. It is an e-publication with more than 30,000 executive subscribers throughout the region. The Business View Caribbean […]
The Belize Animal and Health Authority has put in place precautionary measures to protect the country from African swine fever. It is a highly contagious hemorrhagic viral disease of domestic and wild pigs, which is responsible for serious economic and production losses. Vast areas of the Eastern hemisphere are being affected with forty-five countries reporting […]
Soybean producers in Little Belize are in the red and they are desperately trying to find a new market for roughly seven million pounds of the legume which is being stored in three silos in that Mennonite community up north. Farmers attribute the loss of sale to the importation of soybean products from neighboring Mexico. […]
Little Belize is a small remote community populated by almost three thousand Mennonites. To get there you travel via Progresso Road in the Corozal District. It is not often in the news, but tonight we have a report on a situation that is threatening the livelihood of some two hundred farmers. Now, the community depends […]
Turning to glut in potato supply in the country.… The Chief Agriculture Officer, Andrew Harrison says that Belizeans consume over three point five million pounds of potato annually; one hundred thousand pounds weekly. And the production of red potatoes is more than consumption. P.U.P. area rep and shadow agriculture minister, Jose Abelardo Mai, has a […]
But the question remains…. will farmers be left once again with rotting potatoes in the fields due to the glut on the market? Agriculture Minister Godwin Hulse says that it is an issue that they are grappling with because the market in Belize is small. Godwin Hulse, Minister of Agriculture “That is an issue […]
The local sugar industry is transitioning from a raw sugar producer to a manufacturer of direct consumption sugar. It’s a move that American Sugar Refinery, started almost two years ago in anticipation of the change in the E.U. Sugar Regime in respect of preferential prices for the Caribbean, including Belize. The industry is one of […]
The millers and the government have been working feverishly to lobby CARICOM to allow preferential pricing for direct consumption sugars in the Caribbean. As it currently stands, Belize, Jamaica and Guyana are sugar producing countries, but member states continue to import refined white sugar from outside the region. Because of the current world prices, the […]
On Tuesday, Chief Agriculture Officer Andrew Harrison issued a press release explaining the potato planting season for 2018/2019. According to the government representative, the Ministry of Agriculture met with potato producers from across the country, including farmers in the north, to present projections for the 2019 potato crop. It expected that as many as three […]
