San Carlos Village Farmers to Benefit from Major Road Upgrade Project

Farmers of San Carlos Village, Orange Walk will soon have a much smoother ride when transporting their fruits and vegetables to the market. Today, the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security and the Resilient Rural Belize (RRB) Programme signed a contract to upgrade the community’s main road. The venture seeks to have 3.07 miles paved from Indian Church Village to San Carlos and enhance the community’s agricultural and tourism industry. For years, farmers from the area have had to traverse bad roads to transport their produce, creating wastage and damaging their vehicles. Minister of Agriculture and Food Security Jose Mai says the community can now look forward to improved market access and a better standard of living.

Jose Abelardo Mai, Minister of Agriculture: “When I arrived in this village the first time in 1988 there was not even a road, I had to come by boat. Today we have advanced but there is still a lot of work more to do. We have reached a peak where we have enough production to supply the country but as we start to produce more we start run into problems. So we’ve now started to think about industrializing the agriculture sector and San Carlos falls into that. So what you see around here is not only homes but actually you see an industrial area, an agriculture industrial area. Not far from here we have the papaya industry, papaya packing plant, we have the grain producers and not far from there we also have the largest cattle exporting facility in the country. So it’s not only people that live here it’s an agro industry area and so San Carlos is in the middle of that. So this road is the beginning of something good for San Carlos. It’s only the beginning though because we need to complete the road upgrading from Indian Church to San Felipe. This one here from San Carlos to Indian Church is a three mile stretch at $1.1 million dollars to upgrade and in September we hope to sign the contract for the design of the Indian Church to San Felipe road and thereafter maybe by December we can sign the contract for that road. But this will definitely reduce the cost of transportation, of moving products from here all the way to Belize City. It will make the product arrive at the market in a healthier, wholesome, fresh manner so this is very important. And it will open the avenue for more tourists to visit Lamanai. This part of the county here is both tourism and agriculture.”

The construction will cost approximately 1.19 million dollars and will be funded through a grant from the Green Climate Fund. Chief Executive Officer in the Ministry of Economic Development Carlos Pol underscored its importance and how it falls in line with the government’s Plan Belize agenda.

Carlos Pol, CEO, Ministry of Economic Development: “We realized that there are certain communities and specifically in this time San Carlos is the beneficiary of this community for this upgrade of the road which is necessary. We all know the contribution that the farmers of San Carlos have done and continue to do with Belize. They are the largest producers of vegetables they are the ones that are supplying our markets and we expect to put some value added to what they’re producing so that we’re able to export some of the products that they do. So what you are giving is part of Plan Belize and there is more to come. We really want to transform the rural communities and this is what Plan Belize is about. What can we do for the livelihood of specific communities, what we can do to the infrastructure so that they’re able to move their products. This is something that will improve the lives and the livelihoods of people and this is what we’re here for. We work in partnership with the Ministry of Rural Transformation and in this case agriculture is a key player because of the farmers that play a role in this.”

The project is expected to also reduce flooding in the community during the rainy season.