And from taxes to rice, on November tenth the Belize Agro-productive Sector fired off a letter to Prime Minister Dean Barrow expressing outrage at the recent importation of rice. The letter to P.M. Barrow refers to a shipment of rice ordered last week Monday when the Marketing and Development Corporation imported one hundred and fifty […]
The total impact of the floods over the last couple of weeks is still undefined, but what we do know is that livestock is among the many sectors affected. Today the ‘Flood 2008 command team for livestock’ issued a release strongly recommending that cattle farmers in affected areas vaccinate their stock against blackleg disease. The […]
There has been a lot of depressing news in the recent flooding throughout Belize, but tonight there is some good news to report. And while the Belize River Valley farmers are suffering major losses in livestock that are perishing in flood waters, that is in the north of the country. A check today with Belize’s […]
And while on the issue of drugs, there is a new twist to the growing number of cases involving the importation of drugs into Belize. And a report from neighboring Chetumal today says that Mexican state police intercepted and detained a vehicle that was carrying various types of drugs heading to Belize yesterday. According to […]
For the past two days, fourteen specialists from Central America, South America, and the Caribbean have convened at the Biltmore Plaza in Belize City to discuss agricultural development. CATIE (Kathy-eh), the Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Centre of Costa Rica, met with representatives of the University of Belize and the Toledo Cacao Growers Association. […]
Thirty-three percent of the Belizean population is suffering from poverty and these persons are primarily in the Rural Areas. The Flowers Bank Community, however, no longer intends to remain with that distinction. Today, the community members joined forces with U.N.D.P. through the B.R.D.P. to launch the Cohune Oil Project which they strongly feel will also […]
Many businesses are exhibiting signs proclaiming that they do not accept personal cheques … and tonight there is yet another reason to retain the practice. According to forty-eight year old Austin Waight, he received a cheque from Alex Nunez on February eighteenth for thirty-five thousand dollars and another on July thirty-first for five grand. The […]
Police are looking for a woman in connection with an aggravated assault that occurred at another woman’s house. Twenty-six year old Nordette Spain reported to police that around seven-thirty on Wednesday night she heard knocks at her house on Maskall Street, Belize City and someone demanded that she open her door. Spain said when she […]
Tonight there is good news to report on a story we aired last week on the closure of Maya Papaya. According to Co-owner Abe Dyck, the company was able to get some funding from its U.S. buyers to pay employees and on Thursday restarted operations. By phone today, Dyck told News Five that the situation […]
Papaya farmers are facing economic hard times, but today onion producers got a little relief. The government handed over chemicals and irrigation supplies to thirteen families in the northern village of Santa Martha to plant and harvest three acres of onion. The donation, worth twenty five thousand dollars, is part of an initiative which seeks […]
A group of cane farmers, recently returned from a regional conference in Barbados, say that caneros should receive a piece of the action when the sugar company begins to sell electricity made from bagasse. According to a release from the Belize Sugar Cane Farmers Association, when they and their Jamaican counterparts were invited to attend […]
A trip to many of Belize City’s most popular supermarkets has confirmed what shoppers have been saying for several days. No rice no deh. The problem apparently lies in that by now familiar phenomenon of skyrocketing prices for diesel fuel and other agricultural inputs. The mechanised farmers of Blue Creek say they approached government three […]
Yesterday we reported from the Toledo District on an overabundance of pineapples that are, as I speak, rotting in the fields. Tonight, a bit further south, it’s a different story. This time it’s rice but instead of too much, the problem is too little. Fifteen years ago Toledo was the nation’s major supplier of rice […]
Experts tell us that the problem of world food shortages has less to do with production than it does with distribution; that is, connecting the existing food with the people who need it. That difficulty is being demonstrated tonight in the Toledo District where entire fields of tasty and nutritious fruit are being left to […]
If you’re watching this newscast on television or streaming video then this next story may not mean much. The fact is, however, that thousands of viewers rely on the printed transcript of the news which appears on our website, channel5belize.com. And while the site is among the nation’s most popular, over the last ten years […]
The National Agriculture and Trade Show Committee has announced this year’s farmers of the year. Senior farmer of the year is Marcelino Cal of San Jose Village in the Toledo District. He produces fruits and vegetables, root crops, chickens, eggs, beef, milk, cheese and honey, using irrigation and improved pasture for livestock. Woman farmer of […]
The Keel-billed Toucan may be Belize’s national bird … but in this country, chicken is king. Tonight News Five’s Kendra Griffith takes a closer look at the latest developments in the industry. Kendra Griffith, Reporting According to the Belizean Poultry Association, in 2007 each Belizean consumed approximately one hundred and ten pounds of chicken … […]
Every year thousands of Belizeans flock to Belmopan for the annual Agriculture and Trade Show. The three-day event is typically held at the end of April or early May, but today the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries announced that is has moved the date of the show from the weekend of May ninth to that […]
If you ever have occasion to fly to Punta Gorda from the Philip Goldson International Airport, the most striking sight you will encounter is neither the majestic mountains to the west nor the turquoise sea to the east. Rather, it is the hundreds of perfectly formed water filled rectangles that are carved out of the […]
Accused mugger Dennis McKoy has more questions to answer tonight. The twenty year old, already on remand for four counts of robbery in Belize City, is wanted in Dangriga for several armed jackings in that southern town. It seems that after his picture was shown on TV Monday night, several crime victims came forward to […]
It’s the second largest income earner in terms of captured fisheries for Belize, but conch is also listed as an endangered species. And while Belize’s management plan for the marine product has been accepted by international regulators, the United States is now implementing measures to ensure that all countries harvesting conch are adhering to their […]
Construction took a little longer than expected but today, official opening ceremonies were held at the Western border to inaugurate a new facility which will sanitise vehicles entering and departing Belize. Instead of the manual spraying program like that still in place in Chetumal, Quintana Roo, traffic will now pass through a tunnel-like structure that […]
When Hurricane Dean walloped Northern Belize in July, one of the most severely affected parts of the economy was the papaya industry. And while exports of the fruit are by no means back to normal, one modern growing and packing operation in the Orange Walk District, working closely with the Ministry of Agriculture, is making […]
The U.S. Embassy today confirmed that Belize’s annual quota for sugar exports to the United States have been renewed at roughly the same level as last year. The 2008 allotment is set at eleven thousand five hundred and eighty-three metric tons and means that those sales will receive a price significantly higher than that prevailing […]
In another type of correction, the Belize Carnival Association has reversed field and once again changed the dates of the Carnival Road March that had been postponed due to rains and hurricanes. The new date, contrary to what was reported last night, is Saturday, September twenty-second for the road march with Mas Camps scheduled for […]
