Growth in Onion Production

The agricultural sector achieved 30 per cent self-sufficiency in onion production in 2022, moving from 20 per cent in 2021, a 50 per cent growth.

Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, Hon. Pearnel Charles Jr., made the disclosure during a press briefing held recently at the Ministry’s offices in Kingston.

The Minister was giving an update on the $1.07-billion Production Incentive Programme (PIP), which is being implemented by the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA).

Under the initiative, the Ministry has been supporting the resilience of 12 priority crops, specifically onion, Irish potato, yam, cassava, dasheen, pineapple, hot pepper, strawberry, ginger, coco, lime and vegetables, as well as small ruminants, poultry, and disaster mitigation and recovery.

For Irish potato, the sector also achieved 80 per cent self-sufficiency, moving from 73 per cent in the previous year.

So far, more than 19,000 farmers have been impacted under the programme.

“Fifteen thousand five hundred and fourteen (15,514) farmers were directly trained in best practices in 2022, while material inputs such as 24,000 bags of fertiliser, 59,000 G2 ginger plantlets, 3,450 citrus seedlings (2,135 limes and 1,365 lemons), 1,100 units of pesticide for onion, ginger, and hot pepper, all of these were distributed to our farmers,” Mr. Charles Jr. stated.

Additionally, 2,000 water tanks and 1,993 kits were handed out to farmers across the island and $50 million injected to support small poultry operations amidst rising cost of feed and other inputs. All of this benefited more than 1,000 farmers.

He also informed that the Ministry has purchased six new tractors, which have been deployed through RADA along with an assortment of tillage equipment – two backhoes, four pickup trucks, two trucks (one refrigerated and one dry box).

Five drones were also handed over to RADA and an amphibious excavator worth almost $90 million handed over to the National Irrigation Commission (NIC).