TWO FARMERS recently received eight pregnant goats under the goat revolving project launched in December last year by the Ministry of Agriculture and Goat Breeders Society of Jamaica. At the handing over ceremony held at Bodles Agricultural Research Station in Old Harbour, St. Elizabeth farmer Samuel Wilson and St. Ann Ian Banks became the first recipients under the project when they each received four does that had been served (mated) by bucks of the Boer breed.
Pointing out that other such presentations will be made soon, development officer of the Sheep and Goat Project, Ministry of Agriculture, Derrick Vermont, said that in the first year of the project, eight farmers will each receive four pregnant does on a subsidised basis.
The recipient farmers, he said, will be frequently monitored by the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA) extension officers as they will have to return to the revolving herd project a doe kid born from each of the four does received.
The farmers are required to pay 40 per cent of the value of the goats they received. Additionally, persons must be 18 years and over and already have one to 20 goats. They must also attend training days organised by the Goat Breeders Society of Jamaica. The Government is to set up two funds dedicated to the sustainable development of the country's forest lands. These funds are to be named the Jamaica Conservation and Management Fund and the Tropical Forest Fund.
At the weekly post-Cabinet press briefing held this week at Jamaica House, Information Minister, Colin Campbell, said Cabinet had approved the establishment of the funds. He said the aim was to maximise the sustainable economic and social benefits from the management of forest lands for water and soil conservation, biological diversity, tourism, recreation, energy, among other things.
