South Trinidad farmer, Devon Ousman’s crops have been ravaged by locusts. ‘The breadfruit and chataigne [ chestnut ] trees are now like dry sticks. I never saw a tree so clean in my life. The locusts ate everything and the chances are that fruit will just drop off; it may not stay,” Ousman said.
Ousman’s farm in Princes Town is one of many farms in South Trinidad that have been attacked by locusts recently. “Growing up here in Princes Town I never saw this amount of locusts before here. I saw them in Moruga before,” Ousman explained. His family has fields in both Princes Town and Moruga; it grows various crops including mangoes, cassava, peas and paw paw.
Ousman: “Once they destroy the leaves that hampers the crop from producing. It delays the harvesting period and that itself puts additional strain on the farmer because you have to re-fertilise. The amount of money you spend on that crop you lose. It comes like you gradually lose that because you are not sure to get that crop going.”
Source: guardian.co.tt
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