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A year and a half after starting a Cassava Production Project at the Tamarind Farm Correctional Centre, the Department of Correctional Services is planning to increase the current acreage under production to 90 acres, due to the success of the project. The project, which engages 22 inmates in cassava cultivation, began with an initial 15 acres but the area under...

Preliminary figures from the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries have shown that the agricultural sector continued expanding in the last quarter of 2009, ending the period with an overall 23.1 per cent increase in production over the similar period in 2008. The Ministry has calculated that the growth over the October to December quarter led to a 20.5 per cent...

A total of $8.3 million has already been disbursed to some 32 farmers in St. Ann to carry on crop production, under the Financial Access to Responsible Members (FARM) programme. Manager for the St. Ann Branch of the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA), Pedro Worghs, told JIS News that since the launch of the FARM Programme in the parish, a...

The Ministry of Agriculture, today (January 26), signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the World Bank, to evaluate the feasibility of market-based weather risk management practices for the coffee industry. The feasibility study will specifically involve farmers operating in the Blue Mountain region. Speaking at the signing at the Ministry's Hope Gardens headquarters, in Kingston, Minister of Agriculture, Hon....

With the Jamaica 4-H Movement joining in the show of generosity to the people of Haiti, its western Jamaica wing is supporting the national effort with a regional collection drive launched on Monday (January 25). With over 11,000 clubbites in some 196 registered clubs in the western region, covering the parishes of St. Ann, Trelawny, St. James and Hanover, the...

Harvesting operations have resumed at the Frome Sugar Factory in Westmoreland, following the suspension of reaping earlier this month because of bad weather conditions. Persistent rainfall during the December to January period led to the suspension of harvesting operations at Frome for about 10 days, to allow the fields to dry out, so as to improve the sucrose content of...

Director General of the Coffee Industry Board (CIB), Christopher Gentles, has called on key players in the coffee sector to embark on new ways to put the industry on a sustainable growth path. Speaking at a coffee stakeholders meeting at the Kendal Conference Centre in Manchester last week, Mr. Gentles, said that efficiency in the production of the crop must...

Coffee farmers who attended a meeting of representatives of the co-operatives and personnel from the Coffee Industry Board (CIB), have expressed confidence in the industry's viability. "What we need to do is become more creative and more efficient in our production. Reducing the cost of production, will improve our bottom-line," said General Manager of Baronhall Estate, Douet Reid, at the...

Bauxite/alumina producer, Alpart, has granted persons in Manchester funds totalling over $600,000 to expand micro enterprise projects. At a handing over ceremony at their Knockpatrick facility on Friday (January 15), the company presented cheques to nine recipients. Public Relations Officer at Alpart, Julian Keane, said that the beneficiaries went through a rigorous process before they were selected. The projects are...

Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, Hon. Dr. Christopher Tufton, officially opened the Ministry's Pest Risk Analysis (PRA) Unit, following a brief ceremony in the conference room of the Veterinary Services Division in Kingston on Tuesday (January 12). Part of the Ministry's Plant Quarantine/Produce Inspection Branch, the Unit is charged with the responsibility of curtailing the infestation of certain pests in...

With the Centre of Excellence for Advanced Technology in Agriculture (CEATA) now a reality, persons can begin benefitting from its work immediately, through the use of its official website. The CEATA, launched by Prime Minister, the Hon. Bruce Golding last March, was created to serve as a coordinating agency to address research and training in the agricultural sector. As part...

Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), Jose Miguel Insulza, will attend the swearing-in of new Director General of the Inter-American Institute for Co-operation on Agriculture (IICA), Víctor M. Villalobos, on January 15, in Costa Rica. The Minister of Agriculture of Jamaica, Hon. Dr. Christopher Tufton, will swear in the new Director General, in his capacity as the...