Climate change is upon us – Green
Published:Thursday | June 22, 2023 | 12:49 AMChristopher Serju/Senior Gleaner Writer
The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining has allocated $30 million in emergency funding to repair farms road damaged by recent rains in southern Manchester, southern St Elizabeth and St Ann. In addition, $15 million is being provided for crops such as tomato, scallion and melon which were damaged, with $5 million earmarked to help livestock farmers in getting their operations back on track.
Making the announcements at Wednesday’s launch of Denbigh 69, the annual agricultural, industrial and food show hosted by the Jamaica Agricultural Society (JAS) at the Hi-Pro Supercentre in White Marl, St Catherine, Agriculture Minister Floyd Green said $10 million had also been allocated for the repair and restoration of irrigation equipment which was damaged, destroyed or lost, as a result of the rains. Some $3 million will be spent on purchasing grass, which is used as mulch by farmers in southern Manchester and southern Elizabeth.
Prolonged drought
Green pointed out that prolonged drought from last year until recently, followed by bursts of intense rainfall, is a wake-up call that climate change is a harsh reality that is affecting Jamaica and the agriculture sector in particular. He disclosed that, as a result of the drought, there will be a seven per cent reduction in domestic crop production for the first quarter of 2023.
“Which shows that our agricultural sector is still too susceptible to ravages of climate and that is a reality,” he admitted.
Meanwhile, the agriculture minister said patrons who turn up for the three-day show, which will be held over the independence weekend from Saturday, August 5 until Monday, August 7, will get the opportunity to witness the synergy between the mining aspect of his portfolio and agriculture.
“For far too long a lot of the land that has been utilised in mining has not been put to other productive use and that has to end. What we are going to do is ensure that our former mined-out lands are repurposed to contribute to agriculture, and that is a direction of the ministry,” Green declared.
He explained that, in Kirkvine, Manchester, a cluster of 20 farmers had pooled their resources to build 20 greenhouses, one for each farmer.
“We have already developed a model for it, a cluster in Kirkvine where what we have done is utilise former bauxite lands. We have pooled the resources of the community, we have built 20 greenhouses, with each individual assigned a greenhouse,” he said. “What we’ve been able to do is use bauxite pits and turn them into rainwater harvesting ponds and use solar energy to use that water to run the greenhouses. So, we are going to be highlighting at Denbigh how we are going to take this model and expand it right across the island.”