The country’s most modern rice mill, built in Nagua for more than RD$300 million contributed by the Italian government and the Dominican Republic, has remained closed since its official opening last year because the government has not disbursed the RD$50 million it committed to lend to the cooperative of growers to put the mill to work.
The mill, according to Senator Jesus Vásquez Martínez, is the most modern of its kind in Latin America. Not only can it process rice, but several other cereal products. The senator criticized the government for its lack of support in the area. He said that farmers have complained that the Banco Agricola is not financing the rice farmers, that the school in the Barrio San José has still not been completed since construction started four years ago, that repairing of farm roads started in the election campaign of 1994 had been abandoned, and that the final work on the Boba irrigation canal, vital work for the development of the region, also awaits completion.
He also said that the Aglipo II project has not been able to get started, and that in the Aglipo I irregularities ensured that resources went into the pockets of the corrupt. He complained that the Chamber of Deputies has not approved a bill that would create a committee to supervise the execution of Aglipo II, to avoid a repeat of the irregularities that occurred with Aglipo I.