Free Money for Farmers

More than 300 farmers-big, small, subsistence and hopefuls- gathered at the Botanic Gardens office- compounds of the Division of Agriculture on Friday to collect grants ranging from EC$10,000 to $1,000.

Men, boys, women began trickling in at about 8am and they waited in the rain and the sun for more than two hours before officials of the Agricultural and Industrial Development Bank (AIDB) handed over a cheque to the first farmer.

"As soon as I get my money is goats I going to buy," said a farmer from the Roseau Valley.

"I have 13 cows, 13 cows", said an angry farmer from Loubiere as he raged out of the compounds. "I planting yams, tannia, dasheen and they telling me I not a farmer-nonsense."

Apparently, that farmer and others had to complete a form (Registration of Farmers and Fishers in Dominica 2017) before they were considered to be qualified to receive part of a grant of EC$18 million that the World Bank provided to Dominican farmers to compensate for loses inflicted by Hurricane Maria in September 2017.

In addition to the Division of Agriculture point of delivery, grants were distributed at various areas around the island.