Farmer says he prayed for hurricane

Although Douglass Blair's loss accrued from Hurricane Melissa amounts to several millions, he said his prayers have been answered.

As he walked through his two and a half acre farm located in Bog, Westmoreland, Blair said he prayed for a natural disaster and the Almighty responded in his favour.

"I knew this hurricane was coming about three weeks before the forecasters dem start talk about it. Western Jamaica was full of crime and God was seeing it. I see it too and pray to the Lord and tell Him say the only thing that could help the people was a storm. I ask the Lord to do something about it and He did," he said.

"Also there was some people who used to buy from me every time dem go market, dem come back and say market bad because they don't want to give me my money. So I prayed for it and told them that is the leaf of the plant they going to eat because when it grow, they don't have anything to get," Blair added.

Blair is from a generation of farmers and has been tilling the soil for more than five decades. The farmer, who wasn't in the island when Melissa ripped through western Jamaica last October, said he gave his wife instructions about protecting herself and their property before he left.

"I told my wife to remove the vehicle from under the palm tree because it was going to be destroyed. I was in America at a funeral and I asked my wife if the car was moved from under the tree and she said yes and that the tree drop exactly the way I told her it would," he said.

Last November, Agriculture Minister Floyd Green said the industry had suffered close to $30 billion in losses following the hurricane's passage. He stated that approximately 41,000 hectares of farmland have been affected impacting over 70,000 farmers.

Among those counting their losses is Blair but he is unperturbed. He also stated that he will not be blamed for the category 5 hurricane.

"Nobody can't blame mi because mi never walk and tell everybody, mi just tell who a rob mi. In fact, this wasn't even a storm but more a tornado because it take up everything. Yea mi get affected by it, but remember Elijah did pray that there would be no rain for a while and a bird feed him, so nothing nuh wrong with that. I prayed for something, so everybody have to go down on their knees and say there is a god. That was the point I was trying to make," Blair said.

Estimating his losses in the millions, Blair has already begun replanting and is looking towards brighter days.

"Mi lose about two and a half acre of pineapple. We talking about $5 million overall as I lose plantains, bananas, yam and other crops. I am replanting plantain suckers and it take me about a month to do it. I don't have enough funds this time to employ any workers like I usually do, so I am just doing it in stages. The cash I had, I use it to repair my house because we were in water for a long time. Only thing I really need now is some fertiliser, so if I could get help with that I would really appreciate it," he said.