The Minister of Agriculture, Limber Cruz, said Tuesday that through the Agricultural Bank they will negotiate the loans producers whose crops were affected by the passage of Hurricane Fiona, in the eastern region of the country.
This was expressed by the official during his visit to the government of El Seibo, one of the provinces most impacted by this atmospheric phenomenon.
Cruz explained that they will find a way to lower the interest rate on these loans, while establishing longer terms in favor of the farmers.
In that sense, he said that once the survey of the ruined plantations is finished, they will proceed immediately to take seedlings and short-cycle seeds to those demarcations to activate agriculture.
“We are thinking in an integral way, so that the entire area of Hato Mayor, La Romana, La Altagracia, San Pedro de Macorís, all of the east that has been quite affected, God willing” explained the official, who was in the company of the administrator of the Agricultural Bank (Bagricola), Fernando Durán; the director of the Dominican Agrarian Institute (IAD), Francisco Guillermo García; the executive director of the Dominican Coffee Institute (Indocafe), Leónidas Batista Díaz, among other authorities in this sector.
Likewise, Cruz announced that after they have the data on the place, they will move heavy equipment such as tractors, to facilitate access to the farms, by cleaning the local and inter-parcel roads in the areas killed by Fiona.
On his side, the administrator of the Bagrícola, Fernando Durán, said that they will seek to put local agriculture back into perspective, by injecting resources to lost crops of cocoa, food, coffee and rice due to bad weather.
“We are going to redouble that will and effort again, everything that could have been lost due to the hurricane that just passed, we can recover and put agriculture back in perspective”, Duran argued.
However, the owner did not offer details on the precise amount of aid that will be allocated to those producers whose plantations
