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DoA seeks new tractors
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Posted on Feb 27 2006
The Division of Agriculture is seeking the local government’s help in upgrading its almost 20-year-old tractors, which the division has been using in servicing agricultural lands in the CNMI.
Agriculture director Donald Flores said the old tractors have degraded DOA’s productivity, especially when being operated on wetlands.
Flores said his office is requesting the government to provide the hundreds of local farmers more dependable tractors.
Currently the division has three tractors, a big John Deer 4250 100hp, one medium size with 40-50hp, and a small tractor running on only 20hp. These tractors are mostly used for land preparation.
Flores said these tractors have frequently been down. He said he could not count anymore the frequent downtimes in the past years, but the tractors recently have had more downtime than before.
“With regard to parts, there are no more listings for its [tractors] parts. We scrounge for parts and we improvise,” said Flores, adding that it usually takes them at least three months to get the new parts they order from selected suppliers.
Flores said that his division would appreciate the local government’s assistance, especially when the CNMI economy gets better.
Flores said there are more than 30 commercial farm plots under the division being run by local farmers. The farm plots provide diversified crops with an average of 500 lbs of fruit and vegetable crops a month per farm.
In related news, DOA has provided farmers 30 farm plots in the Kagman area. Flores said the farmers are only paying, at a minimum, $40 a month for each farm and that the plots would be leased for a period of time based on their contracts.
Flores said 22 more farm plots are on the way, for rental, to local farmers. He said these farm plots would also be located in the Kagman area. However, there are already more than 100 farmers on the waiting list.
