“Drought impact assessments will take more time,” says Agriculture CEO

Published by BBN Staff at August 29, 2019

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Posted: Thursday, August 29, 2019. 6:38 pm CST.

By BBN Staff: The Ministry of Agriculture is working diligently on the impact assessments for the agricultural subsectors affected by the ongoing drought, however, those assessments will take some more time to complete, according to Chief Executive Officer Jose Alpuche.

“We have about another two weeks before those assessments are ready. We did an initial assessment and now we are doing very detailed work, so it will be about two weeks,” Alpuche said.

The ministry first started doing assessments after communications with corn and soybean farmers revealed millions of dollars in losses as the drought dried up hundreds of hectares of crops. According to the
farmers, losses have exceeded $2.3 million, with more on the way as the drought continues.

The National Meteorological Service of Belize, says that the El Niño weather phenomenon which is contributing to the drought is slowly dying down and that hopefully rainfall in Belize could normalize by the month of October. The Met Service said that September should be a transition month with, rainfall starting to normal.

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