Agriculture Sector Produces 167,000 Tonnes in Third Quarter Amid Severe Drought

Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, Hon. Floyd Green, has announced that despite one of the worst droughts on record, Jamaica’s agricultural sector produced 167,000 tonnes of domestic output in the third quarter of 2026.

He attributed the achievement to the hard work of the country’s farmers, coupled with the Ministry’s interventions to support the sector.

Speaking during Wednesday’s (November 4) post-Cabinet press briefing at Jamaica House, Mr. Green noted that drought conditions were identified as early as May in major agricultural parishes, including St. Elizabeth and Manchester.

He further explained that by August and September, these conditions had spread to all farming areas across the island.

“We announced our drought mitigation programme in May and we started to intervene. Through the National Irrigation Commission (NIC), we trucked over four million gallons of water free to farmers. Through RADA (Rural Agricultural Development Authority), we would have done 1,900 truckloads free to farmers,” Mr. Green reported.

Additionally, he said the Ministry distributed more than 3,000 water tanks and over 1,400 drip-irrigation systems, and is at various stages of constructing 30 individual and communal ponds to help farmers mitigate the effects of the drought.

Mr. Green stated that while the various interventions helped preserve much of the agricultural sector, some decline was expected, as the effects of the drought were too widespread to maintain the production levels recorded in the second quarter.

Domestic production totalled 190,000 tonnes in the first quarter of 2026, increasing to 196,000 tonnes in the second quarter before declining in the third quarter amid prolonged drought conditions.

“The reality is that the vast majority of our farmers are still rain-fed farmers. So, when you have elevated heat and when they don’t have rain, they reduce the amount of land under production… and even what they’re producing, their productivity falls,” Minister Green explained.

He noted that this is why the Government has prioritised the expansion of irrigation infrastructure across the country, highlighting the recently commissioned Amity Hall/Bridge Pen Irrigation System in St. Catherine, which now provides approximately 1,100 acres of farmland with pressurised irrigation support.