Santo Domingo.- Enriquillo lake’s swelling has gobbled up 325,000 tareas (20,475 hectares) of cattle ranching and farmlands with losses topping RD$1.9 billion, said local agribusiness leader Jose Antonio Matos.

He said more than 90% of the short cycle crops have been lost in Duvergé, Venga Ver and La Baitoa, where the expanding lake has flooded lands in adjacent communities, including dairy farms that produced as much as 12,000 liters per day, but fell to around 3,500 liters, a fall of more than 75 percent.

Daily milk production projections for this date would’ve topped 17,500 liters, but Matos affirms the flooding will lead to losses of more than RD$59.0 million per year.

Interviewed by the Corripio Communications Group, the farm sector leader said there were 1,400 milk cows and 7,000 beef cattle in Duvergé and La Baitoa, “but nowadays it’s estimated that cattle had fallen more than 80 percent, which means more than 4,000 heads.”

Matos noted that from as many as nine steer slaughtered daily in Duvergé and whose meat was taken to Jimaní, Santo Domingo and Haiti, the current figure is only one or two.

He added that the trucks which bought heads of cattle raised around Enriquillo lake are no longer seen.