Clarendon farmer hit hard by Melissa

Having seen the extensive damage done to his two-acre farm by Hurricane Melissa, Claude Thompson said his only choice was to visit the nearest liquor store.

"Mi say from morning a one drum a rum mi drink just fi nuh mad. Right now we farmer dead inna di show. A one drum a rum inna mi because is a next start over dis. Memba a one time a year we get pay, because we have to wait on the crop dem to come to perfection and now it gone," he said.

As he tended to pigs in a sty, he said his current losses from Hurricane Melissa stands at more than $1 million.

"Is $300 a pound for yam and 100 hill a yam can easily turn into 1000 pound, so that alone a $300,000, and mi have a cow that tree drop on and I don't know if it ago survive. Mi [also] lose plantain, banana. All now mi nuh recover from Beryl because mi lose di while a mi sweet yam dem," Thompson said.

He said he is reaching out to the agriculture ministry for assistance, adding that he and other farmers in the area have managed to rebuild over the years. But Tuesday's lashing is too much for his pockets.

"Right now it just too much and we dead off this time. And mi know other farmers in other parish get knock too, but mi a beg di government pay Clarendon mind this time," he said.

Thompson said he is thinking of focusing only on animal rearing, as his losses in ground provisions over the years have been extremely discouraging.

"It just too much and it's like mi can't even explain. Mi a invest and not seeing any profit or not even the money weh mi put in, because every year we get flooding. Mi have some cows so it better mi focus on dem," Thompson told THE STAR.

"A over 40 years mi a do farming and mi nah lie, anyhow mi did ever younger, mi sell out what mi have left and just go a farrin and start over. But, at this age it don't even make any sense," he said.

S.M.L.