Dominica has received more than $110,000 in agricultural assistance from the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, or FAO, to help the agricultural sector, which suffered damage from Tropical Storm Erika, officials said.
“The greatest impediment to our agricultural and eco-tourism recovery is lack of access,” Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries Permanent Secretary Harold Guiste said in a statement.
Guiste said the funds would help restore access to several farmers whose produce has been locked on the other side of their farms as a consequence of landslides.
The financing provided by the FAO in collaboration with the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture, or IICA, will also be used to restore forestry and agricultural access roads, address on-farm infrastructure and fund training workshops to improve farmers’ skills.
Dominica’s government estimates losses in the agricultural sector at more than $37 million.
Tropical Storm Erika destroyed or badly damaged more than 370 homes and two entire communities had to be evacuated because of soil instability and the threat of additional landslides.
