Paul: Most farmers had a good Christmas period
Most local farmers seem not to have been adversely affected by the periods of heavy rainfall that descended on the island late last year, as the Barbados Agricultural Society (BAS) is reporting that they had a good Christmas period.
BAS CEO James Paul suggested that while some farmers were affected due to their location, those who had produce to sell over the 2016 Christmas period did a good trade.
“[The Christmas period] was pretty good for most of the farmers. [Some] crops were in abundance, so those who had produce, it was pretty good for them,” Paul remarked.
“[The rain] would have affected some of them. Those who had cucumbers, it might have been a little problematic for them, but there was still a local supply. Depending on the areas persons were in, they might have been impacted. Beans might have been a bit short and the peas might not have been as plentiful as you may have wanted them to be…but in some areas they had,” Paul explained.
Whilst the year 2016 started out relatively dry due an extended period of drought, Deputy Director of the Barbados Meteorological Services, Sonia Nurse recently indicated that as the wet season got under way, there were periods where excessive rainfall was recorded - from around late September, for parts of November and then into December as well. Near the close of December, it was revealed that in terms of rainfall around 1 418 millimetres was the recorded figure - above the long term average,- as around 1,270 millimetres is usually record in an average year.
Whilst the heavy rains caused severe flooding in some low lying areas, overall, it appears that the farming community on a whole did not fare too badly as the year 2016 came to a close. (RSM)
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