200 South St Elizabeth Small Farmers Get Land Titles

Some 200 small farmers, who occupy lands in south St. Elizabeth, are now proud property owners.

The beneficiaries were presented with titles during the ground-breaking ceremony for the Pedro Plains Irrigation Expansion Project in the parish on Thursday (July 10).

They are the first set of about 1000 persons, who will benefit from land titles generated free of cost under the $26 billion project.

Prime Minister, Dr. the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, said the land titling exercise is a critical part of the broader infrastructure development, which aims to transform informal farmers into fully empowered agri-business operators, enabling them to fully unlock the full economic value of the land.

“If we really want investments in this area, you can’t just have the farmers say, ‘I’ve been living on this land for years and so it’s my land’. We want you to do big things in farming, go to the bank and get a loan, [do] some processing, buy some equipment but you can’t do it because you don’t have a title,” he pointed out.

He encouraged the recipients to begin treating their land as a business asset.

“Now, you know, you’re getting titles… maybe you can go to the bank, start to develop a proper business plan, start to take a more business approach to agriculture,” Dr. Holness urged.  

“We want to move you now to the next level, where that same land can give you more than the six-month crop and the down payment on the pickup. That same land can now get you the equipment for automation, greenhouses, cold storage, and processing,” he said.

Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining, Hon. Floyd Green, in his remarks, noted that under the Pedro Plains irrigation project, “we are not only bringing water, but also ensuring that farmers can truly own and benefit from their lands.”

The titling exercise forms part of the Government’s larger push to build a productive, resilient, and business-ready farming sector in support of national food security.