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Jamaican grower shares tips for hurricane preparedness

As the Atlantic Hurricane Season approaches, greenhouse farmers are being encouraged to prepare their farms to withstand storms. The encouragement came from the Managing Director of Abbey Garden Farm and the Caribbean's Young Farmer of the Year for 2023, Diandra Rowe.

Rowe, who has been farming for over a decade, shared that her greenhouse farm suffered damage of $40 million during the passage of Hurricane Beryl last July. With that experience, she stressed that hurricane mitigation should begin the moment farmers decide to construct a greenhouse to help them protect their investments.

"It is important to think of your greenhouse structure and your design. When erecting your greenhouse, you should consider where it will be placed. It's always best to construct your greenhouse in an area where it's protected from heavy wind and it's not prone to flooding," Rowe outlined.

For farmers whose holdings are unavoidably in flood-prone areas, the champion farmer advised that they dig trenches around their greenhouses to channel water away from the structure. Another consideration that should be made prior to the construction of greenhouses is the type of material that will be used.

Read more at Jamaica Observer