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Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller has said that the growth and development of the country's agricultural sector was critical in stemming rural under-development. "Many of the social ills now experienced in the urban area, stem from the neglect of the rural areas. Continued rural under-development leads to the rural-urban drift. This deprives the rural areas of the strength and vitality...

Land and Agriculture Minister, Roger Clarke yesterday (May 3) unveiled several strategies to enhance rural development, among them the implementation of a $700 million rural diversification programme. The Minister, who was making his contribution to the 2006/07 Budget Debate in Gordon House, said that the initiative, which is being funded by the European Union, would benefit some 10,000 displaced farmers...

The Ministry of Agriculture and Land, through its Apiculture Unit, is on a drive to increase honey production by 50,000 gallons by 2008 to augment the 131,000 gallons produced in 2005. As a result, the Ministry has allocated some $35,000 for traps to control the small hive beetle, which is a pest affecting the bee and honey industry. Hugh Smith,...

Twenty-eight apprentice beekeepers recently graduated from a training programme in apiculture having benefited from a $2.9 million investment in the sector by the Ministry of Agriculture and Land. The Apiculture Unit of the Research and Development Division in the Ministry hosted the graduation ceremony for the apprentices, who were formerly unemployed young men and women and who participated in the...

Cabinet has approved the appointment of the Land Development and Utilization Commission, and the Advisory Board to the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA). Both bodies are associated with the Ministry of Land and Environment. Information Minister, Senator Burchell Whiteman made the disclosure today (Jan. 31) at the weekly post-Cabinet press briefing at Jamaica House. The Senator informed journalists that...

A pilot project of tagging and providing a 'passport' for animals in the cattle industry, to prevent praedial larceny as well as diseases, has been progressing smoothly since its introduction in September 2005. Implemented under the Animal Identification System, plastic and metal tags have been affixed to the ear of each head of cattle, with numbers to indicate parish and...

As the campaign against praedial larceny gains momentum islandwide, members of the farming community in Portland are strengthening their co-operation with the Police to eliminate the problem in the parish. The problem of praedial larceny is particularly rampant in the communities of Mount Pleasant and Hope Bay, with the perpetrators depriving the farmers of their crops. Hilma Wedderburn, the Jamaica...

The historic Holland Bamboo Avenue in St. Elizabeth is being given a face-lift, by the Tourism Product Development Company (TPDCo), Ministry of Agriculture and the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA). Hurricane Ivan, which lashed the island in 2004, seriously damaged the bamboo trees, as did a number of illicit bush fires, resulting in a marked decline of the plants....

Approximately 85 hectares of tree crops such as ackee, sour sop, breadfruit and june plum were planted in Hanover last year, under the Ministry of Agriculture's Fruit Tree Crop Programme. Parish manager for the Rural Agricultural Development Authority's (RADA) Hanover office, Bernard Goffe, told JIS News that although the farmers fell short of the target of 90 hectares, the "project...

The Research and Development Division (RDD) of the Ministry of Agriculture has put measures in place to eradicate three of the pests and viruses, which affect hot pepper, a non-traditional crop, which contributes more than US$1 million to the economy. The initiatives, which are being undertaken at an annual cost of some $500,000, comprise tackling the pepper gall midge, broad...

Plans are in high gear for the 19th staging of the St. Mary Agri Expo, which is slated for April 16 and 17 at James Bond Beach. The annual show, which is sponsored by the St. Mary branch of the Jamaica Agricultural Society (JAS), is designed to showcase the best of agricultural production in the parish. Among the major attractions...

Work is proceeding smoothly on the Pedro Plains irrigation project in St. Elizabeth for which Prime Minister P.J. Patterson broke ground in January of 2005. The project forms part of the government's National Irrigation Development Master Plan (NIDP), which is being piloted by the National Irrigation Commission (NIC), with a view to increase farmer participation in the agricultural sector. The...