Ten million dollars has been made available to help farmers with emergency food security in the country. The fund was provided by the World Bank as part of the Emergency Agricultural Livelihoods Climate Resilience Project aimed at helping farmers boost productivity during the coronavirus situation in Dominica.
The fund will be available to eligible farmers in form of cash and seedlings as well as agricultural implements for farm cultivation. The emergency funding was facilitated by the Dominica Ministry of Agriculture under the Contingency Emergency Response Component to assist backyard farmers.
Programme Manager Kervin Stephenson said the assistance is for small farmers with up to 3,000 square feet of land and big farmers with up to 10,890 square feet of arable land. He added that a package of fertilizers, small tools, and seeds valued at $500 will be made accessible to the farmers.
Over 800 households and backyard farmers have received seedling packages since the Backyard Gardening Programme took off in April. With the backyard gardening, eligible farmers must have a space of about a quarter acre. For larger holdings, farmers and fishermen impacted by Hurricane Maria would also benefit from the emergency fund to help with the restoration of livelihoods and food security in the country.
While there are eight varieties of seeds to choose from, farmers are at liberty to choose five types of seeds for cultivation; for the monetary assistance, farmers with less than two acres of land will receive $700, those with 2 to 5 acres of land will receive $1,400, and those with five or more acres can get up to $2,800.
This article is copyright © 2020 DOM767
