One month ago, Hurricane Fiona destroyed $159 million worth of crops in Puerto Rico. It decimated fields of plantains, bananas and other crops. The US territory’s fragile agricultural sector is barely starting to recover from the Category 1 storm, which hit the island’s southwest region on September 18, causing ‘historic’ flooding and dozens of landslides. It also destroyed more than 90% of crops across Puerto Rico.
Heavy rains smothered hundreds of acres’ worth of crops and fierce winds flattened young banana and plantain trees, which bend easily starting at a constant wind of 20 mph given the heavy bounty they produce, said agronomist Peter Vivoni, president of the Puerto Rican Agriculture Hall of Fame.
The storm was the latest challenge to hit Puerto Rico’s agriculture sector, which has struggled to find workers to pick crops and prompted government officials in recent years to bring workers from Mexico and the Dominican Republic.
Source: apnews.com