The government of St Vincent and the Grenadines will continue to offer financial support to farmers affected by La Soufriere’s eruption.
An estimated four thousand farmers, mainly from northern St Vincent, were affected.
Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves said the cabinet has decided that the farmers will receive financial support every two months.
“The farmers would be paid sometime between the 22- 25 October just before independence. This payment is for September and October, and in December, we will pay for November and December just before Christmas.
Its two monthly payments of 1000 dollars we are doing, this is to lessen the number of persons converging because of COVID-19”.
There have been complaints by farmers that no financial support was forthcoming since the last payment in August.
Gonsalves said that farmers who did not receive the money earlier due to issues with their ID cards would also receive their payments in full for all outstanding months.
“For farmers who did not receive payments in July and August because of identification issues will be paid now. Some would receive 2000 dollars while others will receive 1000 dollars, the bill for these payments will be 5 million dollars”.
Gonsalves said other forms of support from the government continue to volcano affected persons.