Minister Ennis Urges Portland Farmers to Register With RADA

Minister of State in the Ministry of Agriculture, Errol Ennis has urged farmers in Portland who were affected by Hurricane Ivan to register with the programme currently being conducted by the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA). This he said was necessary for them to access the assistance that government was providing for the farming sector as part of the recovery effort.
Mr. Ennis was addressing farmers in the community of Mill Bank in the Rio Grande Valley area of Portland, during a tour on Friday, October 8. The State Minister said while government was not able to provide the farmers with assistance to cover all the losses they had suffered, they would be assisted with reviving their farming and re-organising their lives.
Mr. Ennis who was accompanied by Member of Parliament for Eastern Portland, and State Minister in the Ministry of Education, Youth and Culture, Dr. Donald Rhodd along with officers of the Portland Office of RADA, reminded the farmers that the assistance they were to receive would be in direct relation to the amount of loss they reported.
Assuring that the registration programme was being conducted in a fair and transparent manner, he urged the farmers to ensure that the reports provided were accurate in order for them to receive the proper proportion of assistance to which they were entitled. A verification process is also to be carried out to ensure that the claims made are authentic.
Mr. Ennis told the farmers that benefits would be distributed through the Office of National Reconstruction (ONR), which was established specifically to deal with matters relating to the recovery effort following Hurricane Ivan.
Meanwhile, responding to concerns raised by the farmers that they were confused by requests to also register with the Jamaica Agricultural Society (JAS), which is conducting its own registration programme, Mr. Ennis explained that, while there was nothing to prevent them from registering with the JAS, those farmers who wanted to receive assistance from the government should also register with RADA.