U.S. Ambassador Closes Reconstruction Program Valued at RD$417 Million Pesos

9 April 2002

U.S. Ambassador Closes Reconstruction Program Valued at RD$417 Million Pesos

SANTO DOMINGO – The United States Ambassador, Hans H. Hertell, together with the Technical Secretary to the Presidency, Rafael Calderón, and the Secretary of Agriculture, Eligio Jáquez, participated in the ceremony for the closing of Program 416(b) “Reconstruction of Small Farms Affected by Hurricane Georges.” The ceremony, held on April 9 in El Embajador Hotel, was attended also by representatives from the United States Department of Agriculture, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Secretariat of Environment, and the 22 NGO´s and 5 governmental institutions which participated in the program.

Program 416(b) was the U.S. response to the destruction caused by Hurricane Georges in the Dominican Republic in 1998. The United States Department of Agriculture, through this program, donated 100,000 metric tons of wheat, which had been the product of a wheat surplus of United States producers.

The wheat was sold and the RD$300 million collected were destined to support the reconstruction efforts for small farms which had been affected by the passage of Hurricane Georges.

The project was under the coordination of the Secretariat of State of Agriculture and the Technical Secretariat of the Presidency. A total of 43 projects, 27 of which were directed by NGO’s and 16 by Dominican government agencies, were carried out. The donation had a counterpart from both the public and the private sector of somewhere around the equivalent of approximately RD$117 million pesos, for a total value of RD$417 million.

The United States Ambassador, Hans H. Hertell, in his remarks during the inauguration ceremony, acknowledged the outstanding efforts made by the Technical Secretariat of the Presidency and the Secretariat of State for Agriculture in helping small and mid-sized agricultural producers recover from the devastating effects of Hurricane Georges.

Ambassador Hertell said: “This program was successful because representatives of the Technical Secretariat, the Secretariat of State for Agriculture, the United States Department of Agriculture, and the USAID sat down and worked together to draw up a program strategy, to review and approval proposals for projects, and to administer the program together. I would personally like to recognize the excellent work done by the Technical Secretariat of the Presidency and the outstanding team from the Department of Coordination of Internal Resources (DCRI) for the long hours dedicated to this project.”

The main objective of Program 416(b) was to assist small farmers and cattle producers who were seriously affected by the greatest damage from the passage of the hurricane. The program rehabilitated more than 45,000 tareas of coffee, 23,000 tareas of cocoa, 6,060 tareas of fruit trees, and 21,000 tareas of sugarcane. In addition to the rehabilitation of the plantations, Program 416(b) was able to supply more than 1,500 head of cattle, 3,400 head of pigs, 97,000 chickens, and replace 873 apiaries.

Other activities carried out by the local producers´ associations and the NGO´s included the reconstruction of more than 1,000 small poultry farms, the reconstruction of 130 kilometers of local roads, 54 kilometers of irrigation and drainage systems reconstructed, more than 6,000 workshops and training courses and the construction of 24 coffee, cocoa, and fruit tree greenhouses.

In order to guarantee a healthy and strong agricultural sector, the Executive Board of the Program determined that it was essential to reconstruct the country´s animal and vegetable health facilities. In order to achieve this goal, the Secretariat of State for Agriculture made grants to support the following projects: “Support of Integral Management of the Coffee Broca,” “Strengthening of Agricultural Health,” and “Rehabilitation of the Animal and Vegetable Quarantine Stations, as well as the Reconstruction of the National Technology Laboratory (CIBIO)”.

The philosophy of the program was not just to restore agricultural production to the levels existing prior to the hurricane, but to also reconstruct the country´s agricultural infrastructure by using modern technology, as well as to improve a variety of plants, improve methods of research, and better coordination and communication among the public and private sectors.

As stated by Ambassador Hertell, this program leaves the country “better prepared for the future, and for the ever greater demands of international competition and free trade…..Thanks to the efforts of Program 416(b), and of the Secretariat of State for Agriculture, I firmly believe that in the three years following the hurricane, the Dominican agricultural sector has become much more competitive.”

In concluding his remarks, Ambassador Hertell revealed that: “Due to the important achievements obtained by this reconstruction program, in June of 2001 the United States Department of Agriculture approved an additional donation of wheat, valued at approximately RD$200 million. The donation was channel to a program called “Global Initiative of Food for Education” which is managed at present in combination with the Secretariat of Education in five provinces of the eastern region of the island.”