St James farmers unhappy with newly rehabilitated roads

WESTERN BUREAU:

After waiting for more than 30 years for the rehabilitation of their farm roads, farmers in upper St James are expressing disappointment with the work carried out on the Dragoon and Flagstaff farm roads, which were opened by J.C. Hutchinson, the state minister in the Ministry of Agriculture on Wednesday.

According to Michael Shaw, a livestock farmer, the agriculture ministry and the Rural Agriculture Development Authority (RADA) need to pay more attention to the finer details of road rehabilitation because in their case, the roads were not properly done.

“More attention needs to be given to the road to ensure it is properly rehabilitated and that the drainage is aligned properly to carry the water into the gutter so that it can serve us a little longer,” Shaw told The Gleaner.

“I appreciate it, it is much better than it was before, but the road is not complete because if you notice, there is a lot of flux in the road already. We need drains to take the water into the culverts,” continued Shaw. “To get a road now and boasting about it, and then next week we have to be calling on the Government to fix it again, that doesn’t make any sense.”

Dennis Pearson and Bernice Lindo, who are also seasoned farmers, shared Shaw’s sentiments and hope more attention was given to ensure the road was properly done.

“This road is very important, but we need some drains to take the water off the road,” said Pearson. “If the road is left in the condition that it is now in and we get a shower of rain, we will not have any road, so we need some curve and channel.”

“We are very thankful for the road, because it has been over 30 years that the road was in a bad condition, but If you spend a lot of money on that road and there is no culvert, it doesn’t make sense,” Lindo said in support of Pearson’s point.

“Since 1990, the road deteriorated and we have been asking for it to be fixed, because it has been a challenge for us as farmers to get our produce to market,” added Pearson.

On Wednesday, Hutchinson opened the Dragoon, Flagstaff, Tangle River and Prosper farm roads following rehabilitation carried out by RADA under the National Farm Road Rehabilitation Programme.

“These roads will ease the plight of farmers and encourage more young people to get involved in farming,” said Hutchinson, while noting that since the commencement of the rehabilitation of farm roads across the island in 2015, more farmers are able to take their produce to markets.

“During that period to now, we have done 250 roads at a value of actually $1.8 billion; and by the end of March, we are looking at doing another 72 more roads to compete the current financial year,” added Hutchinson.