Agriculture Ministry To Speed Up Farm Road Repairs

The Ministry of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries will be partnering with municipal corporations to speed up implementation of the National Farm Road Rehabilitation Programme.

Minister without Portfolio, Hon. JC. Hutchinson, said that the Ministry intends to sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the local authorities, which will see the entities carrying out critical work such as road scoping.

He said the partnership will help to reduce the often lengthy process in getting farm roads rehabilitated.

“Once the roads have been identified as farm roads by the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA), the scoping will be done by the municipal corporations,” Minister Hutchinson explained.

“They know the roads, they have an engineer and they will be able to scope the roads in their parish within a matter of three weeks,” he added.

He further pointed to the need to speed up project procurement for the roadworks, noting that the procedure sometimes takes two to three months but can be done “in no more than four weeks”.

Minister Hutchinson was speaking at the official opening of the rehabilitated Dragoon to Flagstaff road in St. James on January 22 under the National Farm Road Rehabilitation Programme. He also opened the Prosper to Tangle River roadway in the parish on the day.

Under the Government’s National Farm Road Rehabilitation Programme, being implemented by the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA), more than 250 roads have been rehabilitated, to date, at a cost of $1.8 billion.

The Dragoon to Flagstaff and Prosper to Tangle River roadways were repaired at a cost of $8 million each, providing improved access to markets for some 2,666 registered farmers.

Another 72 roads are expected to be completed by the end of March.