Rayon Dyer, Gleaner Writer

Dr. Omar Davies (centre) Minister of Finance and Planning along with Oscar Spencer (right), a representative of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) officially sign the National Irrigation Development Programme financing agreement between the Government of Jamaica and the IDB on May 27, 2005 at the ministry's main conference room in Kingston. Looking on is Donald Buchanan, the former Minister of Water and Housing. - Norman Grindley/Deputy Chief Photographer

Black River, St. Elizabeth:

A major initiative by the Government to extend irrigation water to farmers in southern St. Elizabeth is now under way as part of a strategic move to revive agriculture in this section of the island.

Areas such as Southfield, Flagaman, Seaview, Ballards Valley, Malvern, Junction, Alligator Pond, New Forrest, Watson's Hill, Nain, Bull Savannah, Dunda Hill, as well as many other farming areas in southern Manchester/St. Elizabeth, stand to benefit in a meaningful way from the improvement and distribution of irrigation water.

The Pedro Plains Irrigation System, which was established at a cost of over $100 million is now complete. "This project will be commissioned into operation before the end of this year, and the entire southern plains of St. Elizabeth will have irrigation water for farming purposes," said Donald Buchanan, Member of Parliament for south-west St. Elizabeth. "And, the over 5,000 farmers on this side of Jamaica will be in a better position to significantly increase their production," he added.

Mr. Buchanan also spoke of the current rehabilitation of the Hounslow Irrigation System, which he said, "upon completion would strengthen the distribution capacity of irrigation water to the various areas in the parish. He stressed that "this was important because without adequate water for farming purposes, agriculture would die a natural death and as a country we cannot afford that."

$25 million grant

At the same time there is also the $25 million which was granted to develop the Essex Valley Water Supply System, which is to provide irrigation water to a number of communities in the parish.

One of the key private sector companies that is active in helping to increase access to reclaim the base of our core agricultural activities is Alumina Partners of Jamaica Limited (Alpart). Their work with the farmers at the community level to boost agricultural production is making headway.

Speaking to a group of farmers in the Hounslow area of the parish recently, Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller, said some 51 pro-jects have been identified for implementation under the National Irrigation Development Programme (NIDP) by the year 2015, which is be constructed at a cost of $6.96 billion. This will expand the total area of land under irrigation to between 25,000 and 40, 000 hectares.

"One of the noticeable things is that the total annual value of the increase in production from the St. Elizabeth projects is estimated at $563.3 million, of which about one-third is from potential export crops such as thyme, peppers, pumpkin and sweet potatoes," she said.

development and expansion

Claude Taylor, a farmer with more than 35 years experience said "the development and expansion of irrigation systems in the parish is definitely the way forward and we as farmers stand to benefit greatly from the expansion. I see this as an opportunity for more persons to go into farming, it will increase the production of a number of crops that we produce down here."

Mr. Taylor said "without water agriculture cannot survive in this area so what the government is doing is a major effort to strengthen the foundation of agricultural production in St. Elizabeth."

Delroy White, another farmer from the parish expressed satisfaction with the efforts to get agricultural lands irrigated. "We want to go into large scale farming, but the lack of adequate water supply is a big problem. Irrigation water is needed in southern St. Elizabeth to develop agriculture, and until this becomes accessible to farmers we'll continue to produce less, which result in us having little to sell," Mr. White stressed.

"Agriculture is not something that we should joke around with. We have to maintain what we have. We seem to be losing the real taste of the agriculture that we grew up on, we have to get back to basics and bring farmers together to reclaim agriculture," Mr. Taylor emphasised.

- john.myers@gleanerjm.com