Farmers in New Caledonia are struggling to survive after heavy rain wrecks potato, pumpkin and corn crops.
The New Caledonian Agriculture Federation (FNSEA) said 30 percent of the corn crops in the southern district of La Foa has been lost with some farmers losing everything after 40 millimetres of rain fell on one day recently.
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Affected farmers are seeking compensation from the government and one farmer says he's lost four hectares over three years because of flooding.
"The crops are all lost, we must construct the terrain again. There is no dirt, it is just rock.
"We have no more fertiliser, we need to take out the rocks which is extremely costly. We need to start again - the product prices have increased.
"Due to catastrophes like it we are going to shut the business down," he said.
The president of FNSEA, Livai Roy, said a huge sector of agriculture is uncared for and brings higher prices in stores because everything is imported.
"We have sent a letter which demands new reforms and further help to the President of the government, and sent a copy to all the institutions in New Caledonia as well as the person in charge of the chamber of agriculture and our agricultural insurance."
The New Caledonian government has recently given a relief of almost US$3 million to help farmers cope with intense rain, but Roy said that was only for specific farmers who were severely affected by the flood.
"Last year we had exceptional rain in October where a number of pumpkin patches and other agricultural terrain were destroyed and our agricultural relief plan did not pay back, therefore it has been extremely hard for farmers to restart patches with the recurring phenomena la Niña.
La Niña is an oceanic and atmospheric phenomenon that brings the colder counterpart bringing extreme amounts of rain, wind and higher chance of cyclones.
Roy said the insurance payout was slowed down due to a deliberative text which judges whether compensation is necessary based on the amount of water that has fallen, not the damage it has on crops.
Therefore, massive amounts of farms have been destroyed and only certain ones who were most affected by the floods have been compensated only 30 to 40 percent.
"We also have an enormous problem in our waterways where if rain falls into plains with many rocks making it extremely expensive to restart a patch, which for three years we have been asking the government to take care of the problem," Roy said.
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Over-reliance on imports
Roy said that in the last few years farmers have had to rely on a lot of external imports which are very expensive which include fertilisers, machinery, and seeds which are not subsidised by the government.
A great number of people were affected by the rain of the last Niña in February have still haven't received any payment in June he said.
This issues results in massive imports of vegetables which is why life is so expensive in New Caledonia and other overseas territories.
A total of 400 tonnes of potatoes and pumpkins have been affected only in La Foa alone, which will result in three to four months of no local potatoes in supermarket shops.
"We have a local politic that does not let small enterprises start up and compete and not develop as a result. The prices are high because we do not compete with small businesses that have competitive prices," Roy said.
"We throw away 400 tonnes of potatoes while we import 450 tonnes of McCain chips, we can clearly see there is an issue here."
Newly-elected President of the overseas territories at the French national assembly, Moetai Brotherson, said that many overseas territories are experiencing high supermarket and energy costs due to the amount hat is imported from overseas.