Tourism Ministry hands over 50 water tanks to farmers in Short Hill, St Elizabeth
Published:Sunday | March 6, 2022 | 5:52 PM
Tourism Minister, Edmund Bartlett, has handed over 50 water storage tanks to farmers in Short Hill, St Elizabeth.
The 650-gallon tanks were procured through the Tourism Linkages Network (TLN) division of the Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF) and form part of a $4 million three-month training and support initiative for farmers in the area.
The storage tanks were connected to new and existing irrigation systems to counteract drought conditions in the farming community, in a bid to increase crop yield to better supply the booming tourism industry.
In his address on Friday, Bartlett pointed out that 42 per cent of the expenditure of visitors worldwide is on food and as such, there needs to be ongoing strengthening of local tourism and agriculture linkage to meet this demand.
“The demand that they [tourists] bring for food is huge, and our job is to supply the demand,” he said.
The tourism minister added that “if we produce the food in Jamaica, you know how much of that money stays here? If we are able to increase this volume to provide more acreage [and] use better technology, we can increase the supply and productivity levels.”
Bartlett said Jamaica earned US$2.7 billion from tourism last year and is projected to generate some US$3.1 billion this year.
“That will be only US$600 million less than where we were in 2019. So, you see the opportunity for agriculture and you must recognise it because, as we grow and recover, so must we grow with our ability to supply on the demand of tourism,” he stated.
For his part, Minister of State in the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Frank Witter, lauded the tourism ministry for the donation, noting that the tanks will assist in creating new linkages that both sectors need to thrive.
He assured that the farmers will deliver on producing the crop quantities and qualities necessary to further supply the tourism industry.
Secretary of the Short Hill Farmers Group, Pearline Vassell, stated that farmers from the community were grateful for the water storage tanks which, when coupled with their irrigation systems, will help to produce crops year-round on their farms.
- JIS News
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