Hurricane Mitch Recovery Project Reclamation in the Aguan River Basin
USDA/FAS Production Estimates & Crop Assessment Division

Foreign Agricultural Service analysts from the Production Estimates and Crop Assessment Division (PECAD) traveled to Honduras and Nicaragua during March 2000 to monitor crop conditions and to assess progress in areas heavily damaged by Hurricane Mitch. This work is sponsored by the U.S. Agency for International Development (AID) under the Hurricane Mitch Recovery Project. The role of PECAD in the reconstruction project is to monitor the agricultural sector, provide crop analysis and forecasts, produce satellite-based and other products, and recommend approaches to assist Central American and Caribbean nations in their recovery from the devastation of Hurricanes Mitch and Georges. While in Honduras, PECAD analysts were able to bring to the attention of the Government of Honduras (GOH) a large damage site that had gone undetected.

PECAD analysts traveled with a Ministry of Agriculture & Forestry (SAG) official to view areas of significant impact in northern Honduras, including the Dole Plantations in the Aguan River Valley near the town of Olanchita. Both the Agriculture Ministry and Dole officials were intrigued by atlases of satellite imagery (prepared by PECAD prior to traveling to Honduras), which indicated that vegetation vigor along the Aguan River in the region occupied by Dole was being restored to pre-Mitch levels. More interesting was another area on the north side of the Aguan River which suggested no vegetative growth where SAG knew that highly productive orange groves had stood for many years.

The mysterious site proved to be more than 480 hectares of unsalvageable land among oranges groves. Trees had been pummeled to the ground by the force of the wind and rain, as Hurricane Mitch apparently devastated that stretch of cropland. Large amounts of sediment overlaid this once productive cropland. Roads were completely washed away, and streams that crisscrossed the area were redirected by the massive sediment deposits. Transportation through the area could only be accomplished by boat, horseback, occasionally bicycles, and on foot. Curious passersby were frequently former grove workers who described in wonderment the extent of the devastation; they also expressed surprise that this isolated location was visited by anyone other than the bewildered landowners, who were at a loss as to how to reclaim their land.

The contrasting circumstances of Dole Plantation and the independent Honduran producers points to the dilemma facing the GOH. Dole is a multinational corporation with access to resources. Other Honduran producers lack access to these resources. Within 10 months of Hurricane Mitch, Dole had restored two-thirds of their banana area to productivity, erected new 3 and 5 foot levees, and bolstered their wind-row formations. A few miles to the east, several devastated orange groves went unreported for 17 months in a region which annually provides 70 percent of national production. The GOH alone cannot match on a national level the resources Dole was able to focus upon its properties in the states of Atlantida, Colon, and Yoro. What can and should be done for people such as the orange producers in the Aquan River Valley is one of many questions to be answered in the coming months. Popular options include declaring the current (damaged) property a financial loss for tax purposes, and relocating to new plots. Other argue that, unlike bananas, oranges represent a tiny portion of Honduras’ export revenue, and thus should be a low priority at present. What is clear is that Dole Plantations is prepared for the next catastrophic event, with plans for diverting heavy rainfall, while neighboring municipalities and producers are not.

The US Agency for International Development, together with US Department of Agriculture, are working with the Government of Honduras to help answer these questions. With the help of satellite imagery from PECAD, they know where to focus their resources.