Gov’t pledges $90m for agri relief efforts amid drought
Published:Friday | April 12, 2024 | 12:10 AMAinsworth Morris/Staff Reporter
As the nation faces another drought, the Government has allocated $90 million to assist farmers to ensure food security.
Agriculture Minister Floyd Green made the announcement on Thursday during the contract-signing ceremony for the Agro-Investment Corporation Irrigation Transmission Force Main and Equipping for Ebony Park, Clarendon, at the ministry’s St Andrew offices.
“It’s not if [the drought will start]. It’s when. Does it start in March? Does it start in June? Does it start in July? ... As we have been tracking what’s been happening, we’ve recognised that the drought has intensified, and as such, today, I am indicating that we are going to allocate an additional $90 million to treat with the impact of drought on our farmers presently,” Green said.
“That additional $90 million ... we are going to be using [it] across a lot of things. Clearly, we have to truck water, and we are allocating about $24 million to truck water, not just to our crop farmers, but also to our livestock farmers,” he said.
Green added that $58 million would go towards irrigation kits, including storage tanks, drips, and hoses, so that water could be harvested during periods of drought.
He also said that there was a team from the ministry assessing how the nation would treat with the oncoming drought.
“We mobilised our teams at RADA (the Rural Agricultural Development Authority) and the NIC (National Irrigation Commission), and we [have] focused our attention on Clarendon, St Elizabeth, Manchester, and parts of Trelawny, and since January to March of this year, we’ve trucked about nine million gallons of water to about 900 farmers,” Green said.
SIGNIFICANT HEAT
He also said that 45 farmers had been assisted to create catchment tanks and areas that would help an additional 1,000 farmers to be more resilient.
“We’ve also been distributing storage tanks and irrigation kits ... to help our farmers build resilience,” he said.
Green noted that since the start of the year, there has been a noticeable “significant elevated heat”.
He said that the ministry is keeping a keen eye on global climate change.
“Our climate has changed. We are seeing longer droughts. We are seeing elevated heat. We are seeing dry spells when we never used to see dry spells ... and as such, we have to do more projects of this nature, and that is why this complements the work we’re doing in Essex Valley [Agricultural Development Project], complements the work we’re doing in Amity Hall [Agro Park], and complements the work that we now have to do every year in the ministry to treat with what we call drought mitigation,” Green said.
The parishes of focus will also be expanded, moving into Westmoreland, Portland, and St Ann for the drought-mitigation programme.
“What we want is that when the rain does come, that we do not allow it to go to waste, but that we are harvesting it to use it to drive our production,” he said.
Green said work would continue this week and farmers who need assistance should reach out to their parish offices and the NIC.
As the nation also recognises April as National Farmers’ Month, Green saluted the nation’s farmers and pledged continued support.
“We will stand with you through these times, and I really want to commend the farmers. We had our worst drought on record last year – hottest, driest year in our history – and despite that, we did meet our second highest level of production ever recorded in our country,” he said.