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President of the Jamaica Agricultural Society (JAS), Glendon Harris, has said that the organisation is providing a range of support programmes and services to the country's farmers, which are geared towards increasing production and productivity. These, he said, include training seminars, production development projects, and tractor tillage programmes. He further cited collaboration with Jamaica Trade and Invest to access funding...

Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, Dr. Christopher Tufton, has said that his Ministry will give agricultural shows the support they need to represent the efforts of farmers and project the sector's importance to Jamaica. Dr. Tufton said that the Ministry has plans to empower and enhance agricultural and livestock shows, across Jamaica, for the purpose. "I am going to ensure...

Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, Hon. Dr. Christopher Tufton, has said that the Government would be reviewing the land use policy this year, in an effort to support and strengthen farming and agricultural activities across Jamaica. "We are going to have to, as a country, spend more time recognising the importance of preserving our resources in order to make agriculture...

Opposition Senator, Norman Grant, wants a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) involving Government, Opposition and the farming sector to ensure sustained national focus and budgetary support for the growth and development of agriculture. Speaking in the 2009/10 State of the Nation Debate in the Senate on Friday (February 19), he said that the MOU would involve setting targets for the sector,...

Resident of Kingston 13, Mr. Michael Murray, is not allowing the current global recession to stop him from eating healthy, so he has heeded the advice of the Government by starting his own back yard garden. He recently visited the Jamaica Information Service (JIS) offices on Half-Way Tree Road, in Kingston, to show off his most recent crop of guavas,...

Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, Hon. Dr. Christopher Tufton, has said that his Ministry will be seeking to engage farmers and land owners in putting their arable lands into optimum use. The Minister was speaking at a Town Hall meeting on Monday (February 15) at the St. Dorothy's Anglican Church, Church Pen, Old Harbour in St.Catherine. "We are going to...

Agriculture continues to outperform other industries, showing 20.5 per cent real growth for the October to December quarter of 2009. Acting Director General of the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ), Dr. Pauline Knight, addressing the PIOJ's quarterly press briefing today (February 16) at the Institute's Oxford Road offices, credited the performance, which she said, is consistent with the previous four...

Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, Hon. Dr. Christopher Tufton, says the Credit Reporting Bill that was approved by the House on February 9, will enable farmers to be integrated into a network that allows their track record to determine their credit worthiness. "This is an extremely positive development for the sector," Dr. Tufton remarked, in his contribution to the debate...

Six of Jamaica's major fishing beaches are to be rehabilitated, over the next three years, at a cost of $19 million, under the tripartite Improving Jamaica's Agricultural Productivity (IJAP) programme. IJAP involves the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the Inter-American Institute for Co-operation on Agriculture (IICA) and the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. It comprises two components, focussing on expanding...

As part of relief efforts for earthquake-ravaged Haiti, members from the 4-H Club of the St. Martin De Porres Primary School in Gordon Town, St. Andrew, today (February 11), handed over non-perishable food items and clothing to the Salvation Army. Speaking to JIS News following a brief handing-over ceremony at the Salvation Army's Territorial headquarters in Kingston, Public Relations Officer...

The Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries in placing focus on the Clarendon plains as it seeks to develop a policy to identify and put the country's most arable lands into production. Portfolio Minister, Hon. Dr. Christopher Tufton, first revealed details of the agricultural land use policy last October. Chief Executive Officer of the National Irrigation Commission, Stanley Rampair, speaking at...

A total of 85 community-based Production and Marketing Organisations (PMOs) have been registered by the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA), which will enable them to access funding and other support to benefit their members. Minister of State in the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Hon. J.C. Hutchinson, on Wednesday (February 10) presented RADA certificates of registration to 50 groups in...