When hurricane Dean hit Dominica on 16 August 2007, the country's banana industry was severely affected.
Seven years later, the sector is still vulnerable to natural disasters and the weather variability. Every year, producers in this Caribbean state lose a significant part of their crops during the hurricane season, which lasts for six months.
"Sometimes, up to 90% of the plantations are destroyed, particularly bananas and avocados and generally all tree crops," explains the former prime minister, Edison James.
The banana industry is a great revenue source for many Caribbean countries, including Dominica.
The island produces approximately 30,000 tonnes of the fruit per year, from which it obtains around 55 million dollars. The neighbouring St. Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, which sell their productions jointly under a single brand, Windward Islands Banana, make an average of 68 million dollars per year.
However, scientific research has determined that the slightest change in maximum temperatures can deeply affect the banana sector, and even destroy it.
"There are also droughts every now and then; very intense in areas such as Woodford Hill and Londonderry," says James.
So intense have the droughts been that "the country was forced to introduce new irrigation systems," explains James. "The wind and droughts are the most determining climatic factors in Dominica."
According to the World Bank, agricultural production accounted for 12.2% of the country's GDP, and the entire sector experienced a 10.6% reduction in 2010, after having grown by 1.5% in 2009.
The minister of Environment, Kenneth Darroux, expressed his disappointment over the fact that Dominica, which has the capacity to be self-sufficient and even to become a supplier for its neighbouring nations, has no option nowadays but to import, which takes a heavy toll on the country's economy and is a threat to the country's food safety.
It is necessary to introduce "measures to improve resiliency, given the potential effects of global warming, and to ensure growers have a greater capacity to maintain stable production levels," he concludes.
Source: IPS
Source: IPS