About $54 million worth of damage has been sustained in the Agriculture sector around the country due to Tropical Cyclone Evan earlier this week.
According to the initial report, Permanent Secretary for Agriculture, Ropate Ligairi said most of the root crops, vegetables and fruits have been damaged.
He confirmed that this will affect the food security for the next three to four months.
He added that this will also affect the supply to local hotels and export market as well.
He said prices of local fruits and vegetables will increase and suppliers should charge reasonable price from consumers.
Some livestock have also been lost in the Western division as some big structures have been damaged.
This includes the poultry farms where lot of birds is lost.
He added that from the preliminary figures received Ba Province suffered about 50% of these damages including Tavua, Ba, Lautoka and Nadi.
Ligairi further said that in the northern division mostly in the Macuata Province and Bua lot of root crops have been damaged.
He said a lot of damage is done to yaqona and coconut.
He said if farmers want to make some money they should harvest the yaqona quickly as this crop will deteriorate very quickly.
He said this figure may increase after the detailed survey is concluded by next Monday.
Story by: Ronal Deo
