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Newly installed Mayor of Black River, Councillor Everton Fisher, said the economic development of St. Elizabeth will be a top priority during his tenure. He said the objective will be achieved through partnership with the private sector and other bodies. "We have to look beyond drain cleaning. We have to bring this parish of St. Elizabeth to greater economic stability...

The Jamaica Exotic Flavours and Essences Company (JEFE) in St. Elizabeth is providing farmers with a ready market for their fruits and vegetables, which would otherwise have been rejected by consumers due to small size, or unattractive appearance. The company, which is the brain child of businessman, Anthony Freckleton, was established in 2006, under a joint venture agreement with the...

Plans are well advanced for this year's staging of the annual Montpelier Agricultural and Industrial Show, which will be held on Easter Monday (April 9) on the Montpelier grounds in St. James. The event, which is being organised by the Jamaica Agricultural Society (JAS) in partnership with the St. James Association of Branch Societies, is expected to cost $2.28 million....

Enterprising residents of two-low income communities in Kingston have set up ornamental fish operations, through which they can earn income for themselves and their families. The entrepreneurs, from Jones Town and Tower Hill, were beneficiaries under the European Union (EU)-funded ‘Building Skills and Creating Wealth’ project, which was carried out from September 2011 to March 2012. The $13.5 million initiative,...

There is renewed call for Jamaicans to consume lionfish in a bid to control the impact of the species on marine life. This comes as the Scotiabank Group launched its ‘Scotia Goes Green On Lion Fish: Let’s Eat Them to Beat Them’ campaign on March 22 at the University of the West Indies Port Royal Marine Laboratory and Biodiversity Centre...

Reaping of Irish potato, planted under a project involving the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA), Newport Fersan, Agro Grace, and the Christiana Potato Growers, is now taking place at locations across the island. Cyril Chambers from the Marketing Development Unit of Agro Grace told JIS News that the crop was cultivated on nine demonstration plots in nine parishes across the...

Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, Hon. Roger Clarke, said that focus must be placed on value-added activities in the cocoa industry in order to move the sector forward. He was speaking at the launch of the Re-engineering the Cocoa Rural Economy through Agro-processing Eco-Tourism and Entrepreneurship Project (RECREATE) on March 20 at the Ministry’s Hope Gardens headquarters in Kingston. While...

Improving agricultural practices to get “more crop per drop” will be Jamaica’s main focus on World Water Day, which will be observed on Thursday (March 22). Based on the international theme: ‘Water and Food Security… the World is Hungry because it’s Thirsty’, the Water Resources Authority (WRA) will this year, examine a number of strategies to boost the water supply...

More than 400 farmers in the parishes of Manchester and St. Elizabeth are to benefit from a solar irrigation system being implemented by the National Irrigation Commission (NIC). Funded at a cost of US$150,000 by the Ministry of Science, Technology, Energy and Mining (STEM), the project will see the NIC pumps in both parishes relying less on regular electricity supply....

A rainwater harvesting project, to benefit some 300 farmers in the bread basket parish of St. Elizabeth, was launched on March 15 by the National Irrigation Commission (NIC). The $4.5 million project, to be undertaken with support from the United Nations Global Environmental Facility (GEF), will involve resuscitation of a six million-gallon catchment tank located in the community of Lititz,...

Agriculture and Fisheries Minister, Hon. Roger Clarke, is again urging farmers to register with the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA) in order to strengthen the Ministry’s efforts to curb farm theft. Mr. Clarke lamented that even as the Ministry embarks on a major anti-praedial larceny initiative, in collaboration with the police and the judiciary, “some farmers have refused to even...

Jamaica is among more than 130 countries which have benefitted from upwards of US$20 million in project grant funding from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation’s (FAO) Telefood Special Fund (TSF), since its establishment in 1997. Speaking at a recent ceremony involving one of the beneficiaries, Garvey Maceo High School in Vernamfield, Clarendon, FAO Representative to Jamaica, the Bahamas...