AS reports of massive infrastructure damage to farms in the western parishes continue to roll in following Hurricane Melissa’s rampage, president of the Small Ruminants Association of Jamaica Trevor Bernard is calling for strict building codes within the agriculture sector to better protect livestock.

He also highlighted the pressing shortage of water, animal feed, and other critical resources a week and a half after the killer storm, which, he said, has forced many farmers to make heartbreaking decisions — choosing between caring for themselves or their animals.

“There has been a massive amount of infrastructure damage. The goat facilities, sheep facilities, and so forth have been badly damaged. Roofs blew off, and [there is] total destruction of some of the facilities. I think that’s the major thing that has happened.

“There have been some deaths of animals…but I think in what I’m hearing and seeing, there is more massive infrastructure damage more than anything else,” he told the Jamaica Observer last Friday.

While he could not provide an estimate of total losses among the association’s 300-plus members, Bernard said he has received reports of some farmers losing as many as 15 animals, mainly due to weak or inadequate housing structures for their livestock. He noted that the damage was most severe in Westmoreland, St Elizabeth, and St James, while Clarendon, Manchester, St Ann, and St Mary also reported varying levels of impact.

Bernard recounted that one farmer, who owned between 100 and 200 goats, was forced to release them from their pen after realising the structure could not withstand the 185-mile-per-hour winds, and was left with no choice but to hope that they would survive.

“The goats, they [ran] into some bushes, and ran to hide under trees and different things. He said he lost one or two little kids. The loss was a very minimal amount, but yet still, his infrastructure — the whole roof, everything — was damaged at his facility,” Bernard told the Sunday Observer.

He said farmers with concrete structures were also affected due to improper building practices.

“When I [saw] some buildings and some brick walls leaning down, it [was] a concrete wall, and a lot of it, there’s no steel. It wasn’t built properly. The infrastructure is not right, and some of the goat houses and so forth [have] no hurricane strap, the zinc’s not screwed down, and different things happen. We have to pay attention to infrastructure and make sure that when we rebuild, we rebuild with certain precautions, following certain guidelines to mitigate against [disaster],” said the president.

He shared that a Westmoreland farmer hard-hit by the hurricane but who had applied proper building standards was spared the wrath of the history-making storm. This, he said, could have been the reality for many farmers who lost animals if they had taken the preventative measures.

“He built it and paid attention to all the different elements. [He had] hurricane straps and made sure that his facility [was] anchored properly in the ground, and different things like that. When you pay attention to those details and make sure that you prepare your facility and you build it strong enough to withstand certain things, then we’ll be in a better position down the road. It is important that when we are rebuilding we rebuild to better standards,” he stressed.

Bernard also sought to highlight the pressing issue of the lack of water, animal feed, and vegetation, which he said is forcing many farmers to make tough decisions.

“A farmer [told] me he could stay from Westmoreland, where he is, which is miles away, and see the town of Lucea, because not even a leaf is left on the trees…There’s no feeding for the animals. I was asking, ‘How are you going to feed them?’ He said, ‘Even the leaves them on the ground that drop off sour and smell bad, and all of that,’ so there’s a…huge feed shortage because of what is happening down there,” he told the Sunday Observer.

“I spoke to a farmer who there’s a choice of feeding his animals and feeding people, because there’s a shortage of food; no water is there either. There’s extreme shortage of water, and people have to just make decisions to let go of [their] goats and hope that they will find water somewhere or something like that. There’s no proper structure as to what will happen in these kinds of situations with feeding and water and basic medication for the animals and so forth, so it’s not even the deaths [of animals] that happened [during] the hurricane, it’s what is going to happen afterwards,” he said.

Ultimately, Bernard said the aim is to prioritise human life above all else and help farmers get back on their feet so they can tend to their animals.

“It’s a very tough thing to look at and, sometimes, if you think about it, you go into Westmoreland, you go into St Elizabeth, or one of these parishes and maybe say you decide to go in there with some care packages for animals and all of these things, it might even look insensitive because you have people [experiencing] hunger and don’t have water…It’s a difficult decision, but we have to take care of the people first,” he reasoned.

Bernard noted that the agriculture and livestock industries play a crucial role in both Jamaica’s economy and the upcoming holiday season. He warned that the widespread damage caused by Hurricane Melissa has already begun to drive up prices — a burden that will soon be felt by consumers across the island.

Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Mining Floyd Green, in a statement on the devastation caused by Hurricane Melissa, said he stands in solidarity with farmers, fishers, and mining stakeholders. He said the ministry will do everything within its power to provide support towards recovery.

“I strongly believe that with all hands on deck we can rebuild, recover, and emerge stronger,” he said.

A similar expression of hope came from Bernard, who said the industry is resilient.

“It’s going to take us time, and it’s going to take us a long time to really get back on our feet again, but I know where there’s a will, there’s a way. We have a lot of passionate farmers who love the small ruminant industry, so it will be alive and well,” he said.