PORT MARIA, St Mary — Businessman and farmer Winston Richardson says it will take time for his five-acre banana and plantain farm to be up and running once more as the damage that has been done from Hurricane Beryl runs in the millions.

“It’s going to take some time for me to get this back up,” Richardson told the Jamaica Observer.

Looking at the devastation that was done from the July 3 system, the young businessman said he doesn’t know where to start as at the moment he has to be checking in with other plantain and banana farmers to know the extent of their damage and trying to secure goods for his production. Richardson, who produces banana and plantain chips, started planting his own crops since he took over from his father some four years ago.

“This is a second blow for us as we are coming out of the drought and now the hurricane came and took everything,” he said, noting that the quality of the bananas and plantains have to be of a certain standard.

The businessman, whose farm is located in Farm Heights, Port Maria, said he has never experienced such loss before.

“I have not started cleaning up yet, as I have to be focusing on touching base with the farmers who supplied me,” he said.

Richardson highlighted that those farmers who supply him with plantains and bananas have been drastically affected and the output will be less for business people like him. The businessman pointed out that production of his chips has not seen any downturn as yet, but cautiously stated that he knows it will in a few weeks to come as it will become harder to find suppliers.

“Before the hurricane I had made the necessary preparations to stock up on bananas and plantains; right now I’m moving cautiously towards supplying my clients so that there will be enough to supply everyone,” he said.

Richardson distributes his chips in the parishes of St Mary, St Ann, Trelawny, Portland, and parts of Kingston.

He told the Observer that he has not encountered any price increase as yet from the farmers, but he is preparing for it.

“The little that will be on the market will raise the prices,” the businessman stated.

In the meantime, Richardson will be aggressively looking to rebound on his losses.

“RADA [Rural Agricultural Development Authority] has already reached out and is guiding me along and all the other necessary Government agencies, which is good,” he said.

Meanwhile, female farmer Tishauna Salmon, who is still trying to get her bearings into farming which she started three years ago, is still clearing her farm. Salmon is at a loss as to what is the first step she would need to take as she lost her cash crops along with over 30 bearing plantains and bananas on her one-and-half-acre land that she used in Tank Lanem, Oracabessa.

“I was just about to reap my pak choi, Scotch bonnet peppers; the tomatoes were not ready and now everything gone,” Salmon stated.

She said she would have benefited greatly from those cash crops she lost. She thinks the location where they were planted contributed to her plight.

“I planted one acre of them on the hillside so when the rain came everything washed away. I lost thousands of dollars. Scotch bonnet peppers rotten on me and the little pak choi we get, is the family that eats it,” said Salmon.

She said she’s not a RADA member, and believes she will not benefit from the help that they are giving.

“Right now, I badly need the help to start over. It’s costly and the market goes weak as I don’t have anything to sell,” she said.

However, this has not deterred her from making the first step. She has begun clearing the land and replanting some of the bananas and plantains which survived.

Parish manager for RADA Kashief Smith said the parish has seen significant damage in the agriculture sector, which will see a price increase on agriculture products. Smith stated that for the parish of St Mary, the south-east and western sections were hardest hit.

“Places such as Enfield, Decoy and Jeffery Town were badly damaged,” he said.

Smith stated that the parish has seen an average loss of 59 per cent in the overall agriculture sector — about $1.3 billion in losses — including about 80 per cent of the banana and plantain crop. But he said it could have been worse.

He told the Sunday Observer that the parish was fortunate that the hurricane did not come with any heavy rainfall.

“If the rain had come a day before it would have made the soil a little bit looser; however, Beryl came with the rain and the wind,” he said.

He further highlighted that livestock farmers were the ones who were most affected in this regard.

“Most of our poultry farmers lost their roofs and rain wet their litters, their feeds,” he said.

Smith highlighted that there will be price increase on agricultural products since the parishes of St Elizabeth, Westmoreland and Manchester were the hardest hit. He encouraged banana and plantain farmers to start cleaning up their farms and not wait until their extension officers come to their farm.

“I will advise these farmers to start cleaning up their farms as these crops take a nine-month period,” he said.

The RADA manager stated that the hardest hit farming communities were in south-east and western St Mary.

“Areas that were badly affected in the parish were Enfield, Decoy and Jeffery Town, right in that region,” he said.

He further pointed out that some assistance will be given to farmers in the form of chicken feed, chickens, fertilizer and seeds.