In its wake like tropical storm for the Dominican Republic last week, Melissa –now converted into a category 5 hurricane and heading towards Jamaica– caused damage to some 36,700 agricultural tasks, which leaves losses in the Dominican countryside amounting to 1,340 million pesos, according to preliminary figures from the Department of agriculture.
By participating in LA Semanal with the Press, the head of Agriculture, Limber Cruzreported that coffee growers were among the most affected producers, after the loss of some 2,847 quintals which, at today’s price, represent around 74 million pesos less in this area.
Only in the municipality of Polo, in the province of Barahonathe coffee growers claim to have due to the amount of water and wind that affected this district in a few hours, and that ended up severely decimating their production.
Reports of damage caused by Melissa
The official highlighted that the heavy downpours and winds caused havoc in several producing regions:
- There are reports of 1,700 tasks affected between the provinces Saint JohnElías Piña y Azua. This represents damage to crops such as bananabananas, curls, sweet potatoes, lechesa and vegetables.
- They register 3,300 tasks lost between the provinces BarahonaIndependencia and Pedernales that were planted with bananacoffee, cassava, corn, beans and vegetables.
- There are 2,700 lost crop tasks between Baní, Saint Christopher and Monte Plata
- There are some 24,000 tasks sown only banana between La VegaSalcedo and Moca due to tornadoes that occurred days before the storm arrived.
Added to this is the deterioration of 650 kilometers of local and inter-parcel roads that also caused rains and floods.
Landslides in municipalities such as San José de Ocoa were also part of the effects of Melissa as it impacted the country during its tropical storm phase.
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