On Sunday, 25 January 2015, President Danilo Medina visited Naranjito and Moncion in Santiago Rodriguez province in the Northwest, where he met coffee growers, women in Los Almacigos and peanut farmers in Dajabon.
In Moncion, he visited the Carmelite Convent of Our Lady of the Americas and San Jose where the nuns requested government funds to finish building their chapel.
The Altagracia Coffee Growers Association (ASOCALTA) asked for help for planting ginger on 700 tareas (44 hectares), 10 for each member, while their coffee plantations were being replanted with government support for fighting the coffee blight.
The replanting involves some 8,000 tareas (503 hectares) of coffee.
The President reacted favorably to their idea of growing ginger but suggested planting almost double the area or 1,500 tareas (94 hectares) to benefit more members of the community. He said they should also have a proper washing and packing area so that they could export their produce, because the facilities in Bayaguana, Monte Plata are too far away and would incur additional transport costs.
Women at the Federation of Mothers’ Clubs in Los Almacigos also met the President and presented their plan to process sour oranges into vinegar, sweets and oil. The Special Fund for Agricultural Development (FEDA) will analyze the plan.
During his visit to Naranjito, Danilo Medina received news of a RD$600,000 repayment by the peanut farmers in Partido, Dajabon, who were lent RD$43 million by FEDA in October 2013 to re-launch the production and processing of peanuts.
President Medina ended his tour of the area by visiting the Carmelite Nuns near Moncion and said that he would do what was needed to help them finish building their chapel.
http://presidencia.gob.do/noticias/caficultores-sembraran-jengibre-mientras-se-renuevan-sus-plantaciones