Bernard Lodge to be model for first agro-residential development – PM
Published:Thursday | August 4, 2022 | 12:08 AMCecelia Campbell-Livingston/Gleaner Writer
BERNARD LODGE is being considered as a model for what is being touted as Jamaica’s first agro-residential community.
In his address on the final of the three-day Denbigh Agricultural, Industrial and Food Show in May Pen, Clarendon, on Monday, Prime Minister Andrew Holness said Bernard Lodge, a former sugar estate, will be the first structured agricultural community.
“It has housing, it has an urban area and it has roughly about 1,000 acres where it has been leased to small farmers in a structured way. We are putting in a massive irrigation system, a massive water supply system and it’s doing very well,” he outlined.
According to the prime minister, he wants to ensure that Jamaica’s farmers have land to produce food. He said the mandate now is to conduct an audit of all the lands that the Government has that are not being used.
“We have some land with the Sugar Company [of Jamaica] Holdings and we have started to look at all those lands that are basically abandoned and we are seeing which land is agricultural land, which land is marginal and they are looking now to put them in a structured way that people can access them through what we are calling now our agro parks to bring land to investors in a structured way,” he said.
Holness pointed out that farmers are not going to be leased bare lands, they will be receiving it with the necessary infrastructure such as irrigation, road access and prepositioned parting access.
Commenting on the challenges facing the sector, he said the Bernard Lodge agro park is a good start. He also acknowledged the investments now being made by business interests, with a call for more business minds to join in order to transform the industry.
“If you were to look at agriculture genuinely from the time of our emancipation to agriculture today, we genuinely could not say that we have had a massive revolution and transformation in our agriculture,” he declared.
Holness admitted that agriculture is still very much traditional but he is encouraged by the interest being shown by investors who are taking risk and making capital investments in agriculture.
Among the companies he highlighted were Jamaica Broilers, Jamaica Producers and GraceKennedy and Seprod.
As the country celebrates its 6oth anniversary of Independence, Holness stressed that “if you are talking about being truly free, our agriculture, food security is a part of that freedom”.