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Mike Henry Commends Greenhouse Farmers

Published:Sunday | June 12, 2016 | 1:07 PM
Contributed
Noranda General Manager Antoine Liddell (left, foreground), makes a point to Transport and Mining Minister Mike Henry (right), on tour of the Noranda greenhouse projects in St Ann on June 2. Behind the Minister, from left are: Vincent Thompson and Omar Sweeney of Jamaica Social Investment Fund; and Parris Lyew-Ayee of the Jamaica Bauxite Institute.

Mike Henry commends greenhouse farmers

Minister of Transport and Mining Mike Henry has said he is impressed with the greenhouse agricultural farms being developed on Noranda's bauxite mining lands in St Ann and has commended the farmers on their productivity and utilisation of the new greenhouse technology.

Henryr was speaking on Thursday June 2, while on tour of two greenhouse clusters at Watt Town and Tobolski totaling a combined 40 houses.

The greenhouses have been built by the Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF) and the Jamaica Bauxite Institute (JBI), in partnership with Noranda Jamaica Bauxite, as part of a project to encourage farmers to maximise their agricultural production by investing in greenhouse technology on mined-out bauxite lands.

JBI Executive Director Parris Lyew-Ayee said that the partnership programme, which commenced in 2015, envisions 160 greenhouses across the industry, with 60 already built in Noranda's mining areas at Watt Town, Tobolski and Nine Miles, with the project also under way in Manchester, St Elizabeth, and St Catherine.

GREENHOUSE CLUSTERS

He said that the two greenhouse clusters at Watt Town and Tobolski have already produced more than 45,000lb of sweet pepper and tomatoes from a combined 60 days of reaping.

Noranda's general manager Antoine Liddell, pointed out that in addition to the 60 St Ann houses, Noranda has spearheaded another 50 houses at Burnt Ground and Water Valley since it started the pilot programme in 2009, while donating five houses to schools in the parish for use as part of their curriculum.

Liddell noted that the company has also built five water catchments with a combined capacity for 25 million gallons to service the St Ann clusters.

The minister said that this was his first visit to a bauxite entity since assuming office and he was pleased to see the positive developments taking place in land utilisation on behalf of the farmers.

He said that part of his focus will be on ensuring that farmers get maximum value from lands associated with bauxite mining particularly in their access to titles, proper valuation, potential for agro-industry, and marketing.

"In that regard", he said, "I want to congratulate Noranda on their accelerated land titling policy, they are one of our leading companies in this field and I encourage the others to follow."