Upper Clarendon to Benefit from Climate Change Adaptation Programme

Several communities in upper Clarendon will benefit from a US$783,000 Climate Change Adaptation programme, courtesy of the Environmental Health Foundation (EHF).

Project Manager with the EHF, Faradaine Forbes-Edwards, told JIS News that the initiative is to increase production and improve the livelihood of farmers in the communities that are prone to disasters.

Representatives of the organisation have commenced registering farmers for the project, and Mrs. Forbes-Edwards said they will be trained in certain areas, so that a change can be made to the way farming is done.

“More sustainable farming practices will be introduced,” she said, while addressing farmers at the Peckham Community Centre in the parish recently.

The project is dubbed, ‘Building Resilience and Adaptation to Climate Change while Reducing Disaster Risk in Peckham, Clarendon, and Surrounding Communities’.

The Project Manager urged farmers to seize the opportunity and boost agriculture, as, with the rapid change of the climate, “we can only reduce the rate at which it is changing”.

Components of the project include increased productivity and adaptive capacity, strengthened capacity for farmer groups, improved disaster risk reduction and climate change resilience and public education and awareness.

Other aspects are: improvement in water management, with the use of plastic tanks for rainwater harvesting and storage; implementation of Climate Change education and awareness in the schools, as well as the training of vulnerable groups in the rural communities.

The 24-month project will be assisted by the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA), the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ), Clarendon Municipal Corporation, Social Development Commission (SDC), Jamaica Agricultural Society (JAS), the College of Agriculture, Science and Education (CASE), and the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM).