Glut in produce incurs major losses to farmers
published: Saturday | January 15, 2005

Byron McDaniel, Gleaner Writer

WALDERSTON, Manchester: THE RESILIENCE of farmers in north Manchester to rebound from the devastation wreaked by Hurricane Ivan four months ago, has resulted in a glut of some agricultural produce in the parish.

A tour of farms in the area earlier this week found an over abundance of tomatoes, cabbage, carrots and fruits on several farms.

Keith Jones, a cultivator in the traditional yam-producing community of Craighead, told Farmers Weekly that while the farmers rebounded without assistance from government, their efforts will be without merit because of losses being incurred as a result of the glut.

"Farmers have made great sacrifice after Ivan without any help from the government recovery programme, although the prime minister declared Manchester among the three disaster parishes," Jerry Harrison, chairman of the Christiana Potato Growers Cooperative, said.

SLUGGISH

Mr. Harrison, however, concurred with Mr. Jones, lamenting that "now that there is ample supply of tomatoes, cabbage and other crops, the market is sluggish and we cannot recover the cost of inputs like chemicals and fertilisers."

But Senator Norman Grant, president of the Jamaica Agricultural Society (JAS), when contacted on Wednesday, said, "The JAS, the Office of National Reconstruction and other agencies are working assiduously to get relief out to farmers as quickly as possible, including those in the parish of Manchester."

In recognising the problems now faced by the farmers, Senator Grant is appealing to consumers to support the local farmers by buying the local produce.