A landslide that eroded a section of the Newcastle main road at the 17 Mile post in rural St Andrew has taken with it plots of produce, leaving farmers struggling to stay afloat.

A portion of Alvin McNeish’s four-acre property — once lined with plantains, bananas, coffee, lemons, sorrel, and other crops — is now resting at the bottom of the hillside, a devastating setback that brought him to tears as he painted a picture of the damage caused by Hurricane Melissa.

On the other side of the breakaway, closer to Middleton district, coffee, plantain and banana farmer Aston Henry faces his own battle. With a section of the main road gone he is now forced to trek through the hills with his produce strapped to his back to meet a vehicle on the opposite side. The exhausting journey limits how much he can carry — and how much he can earn.

Both men say that until the road is repaired their livelihoods remain trapped behind the landslide.

A farmer since 1960, McNeish said he has never seen such devastation.

“I have to stand up and take God’s faith. If I [don’t] have God’s faith I can’t stand up in here so. It’s not a little bit of money to bring back this; this [is not] chicken feed. I’m old already, [I am] 69 years old. Next month I am 70 years old so the work [that] I [could] do, I can’t do it again,” he told the Jamaica Observer last Thursday, his voice breaking.

“And I can’t draw badness; I have to do it with love to see if I can get something. When you see all the water about to come to my eyes you must know, because [it’s] the real truth. A lot of them a guh go around you, say this and say nothing [is] wrong with you, and you nah guh get nothing [to rebuild]…” said McNeish, his eyes welling up with tears.

To make matters worse, the 69-year-old said that with a section of the road gone, residents are now using his farm — which sits on the hillside just above the main road — as a makeshift bypass. While he has willingly allowed them to cross his property, McNeish recalled one encounter in which a man became aggressive and caused further damage to his crops.

He said he chose to swallow the insults to keep the peace, but now fears that his land is even more vulnerable as more people cut through the space daily.

McNeish shared that he lives in Redlight district, roughly two miles from his farm, making it difficult to monitor the situation and safeguard what remains of his produce.

“We going to set back. It a guh take a long [time]. And [it’s not] every man wants to give you work, and [it’s not] every man [will] help you, because when you [leave] this and are gone, another man comes in come thief it. Simple as you see me here, take up a little banana, tomorrow morning when I’m gone to town and a man comes in [here], you don’t know [is] who. Although the [hurricane] blow, they are still thief, so I can’t stop a man. Me nuh live [here]; my two little sheds that I could sleep in, them blow down.

“[Tuesday] gone [when Hurricane Melissa came] I was in my yard and lean on my house, and I feel the [hurricane] shake my piece of house. A piece of board house I have, and I feel it, and this me a depend on to scrap up my little house. Tangerine, orange, everything gone a gully; nothing nuh left on tree. Lemon tree them gone a gully, so weh me fi do?” McNeish questioned, desperately in need of answers.

He told the Sunday Observer he also fears that with a section of the road now gone, the Government might seek to use a portion of his land to build a new road.

As he picked the coffee beans off the broken limbs, the experienced farmer said he intends to take things one day at a time as he tries to rebuild and recover.

“I have to try a thing; I can’t sit down here and be lazy. You know why I do it? It keeps me occupied and I exercise myself, that’s why I do it. Mi nuh want to sit down and [worry], like seh me a put mi hand at mi jaw say mi a [worry] for Father [God] ready for mi. Mi nuh ready yet, so I have my faith and mi a fight me faith a go with Father God. It’s only Father God can help me. It’s Him [who] can put me back on my feet,” McNeish said.

The 69-year-old is requesting any assistance possible, adamant that he will not allow years of his investment to go down the drain.

After trekking through McNeish’s farm land to access the other side of the road, the Sunday Observer spotted Henry, who shared his plight as he tried to salvage his coffee plants. With a huge section of the road gone he said it is increasingly difficult to access his farm, which sits on one acre of land, and transport produce to the town centre.

“We have to walk across the breakaway with it, and a vehicle will come across the other side. It’s a big impact, but we have to gwaan try to see what we can do,” he shared.

Henry stated that the steep hills and rocky terrain limit the amount of goods he can carry at any given time, and increase the chances of crops spoiling.

In his 30 years of farming in the hills he said he has never once experienced damage like that done by Hurricane Melissa. Henry stated that while his coffee plants were mostly spared, his banana and plantain trees did not make it. He shared that he also lost some lemons, guava, and other fruit trees.

The farmer said that while he has a shed where he often sleeps, he saw it fit to leave the area the Thursday before the storm made landfall due to safety concerns. However, there was not one second when his mind was not on his farm and the potential damage he could suffer.

“I don’t eat. I came back on Wednesday after the hurricane and it’s when I reach back up here before I [could] cook and eat. From I [went] down Thursday I don’t go [to the] bathroom or [anything], I don’t eat [anything]. The only thing I drink is some coffee tea in the morning time, that’s the only thing. I don’t eat [any] food because my mind just deh on the farm, straight on the farm,” he told the Sunday Observer.

As he seeks to rebuild the farmer said he is only requesting a few bags of fertiliser to make his battered crops bloom again. Until then, he will put in the work to restore his farm.

“It takes time to pick up. Wi a go dust off and come back again and see what can gwaan,” a determined Henry said.

Aston Henry, a coffee and banana farmer, tries to salvage his coffee beans last Thursday after his plants were battered by Hurricane Melissa.

Banana and plantain trees belonging to Alvin McNeish, a farmer in Newcastle, St Andrew, at the 17 Mile Post, have been eroded along with sections of the main road, following the passage of Hurricane Melissa.