Jamaica Receives FAO Support in Drafting Seed Regulations for Hot Peppers

The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining has received support from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in drafting of seed regulations to strengthen the production of hot peppers in Jamaica.

The regulations are being developed as part of the ‘Improving Phytosanitary, Food Safety and Market Access Opportunities along the Hot Pepper Value Chain in Jamaica Project’.

Speaking with JIS News, Programme Manager for the Seed and Nursery Certification Programme within the Plant Quarantine and Produce Inspection Unit in the Ministry, Alfred Barrett, said the regulations will ensure that hot pepper seed producers operating in the sector are regulated by the same standards.

“Pests don’t know where one field starts, and another begins. Therefore, we want to make sure that everybody is being regulated by standards, so the FAO has helped us to draft it. We have been working on this document for a long while with their input and their specialists. They helped us to at least have a draft that is now going through to the final stage to become the seed regulations,” he said.

Mr. Barrett said the support provided by the FAO will be critical in the certification effort.

“One of the things that we’re going to do is to implement what we call a mandatory certification programme. There are two certification programmes – mandatory and voluntary,” he pointed out.

Mr. Barrett told JIS News that work is also being done to draft nursery regulations.

“Persons are calling to say, ‘I want to have my nursery certified and I want to be able to have my plants marked in a particular way so that somebody can know that this plant comes from me, and this is quality that I am producing, so when they want plant again, they know exactly where to go’,” he said.

He noted that seed producers “also want their seeds to be labelled with their name. Some persons are doing their own breeding work and they are also improving. They want to be able to have that being identified with them so that they can get the benefits that arise from that”.

The US$1-million hot pepper value chain in Jamaica project is funded by the Standards and Trade Development Facility and is being implemented by the FAO in collaboration with the Bureau of Standards Jamaica (BSJ) and the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining.

Key stakeholders and major users of this system will be the Ministry, farmers, seed producers, nursery operators, the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA), Plant Quarantine and Produce Inspection (PQPI) Division, and the Research and Development Division (R&DD).