Over 150 Acres Of Pasture Being Resuscitated At Bodles Research Station

More than 150 acres of pasture are being resuscitated or re-established at the Bodles Agriculture Research Station in St. Catherine to ensure adequate and consistent supply of high-quality animal feed.

Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining Minister, Hon. Floyd Green, said the feed,  produced from grass and forage in the form of green chops, hay and silage, will support the station’s dairy cattle and small ruminant herds, as well as provide affordable hay for sale to small farmers during the drought period.

The Agriculture Minister, who was addressing the handover ceremony for seven irrigation travellers at Bodles in St. Catherine on Wednesday (January29) said these activities are in keeping with the Government’s drive to boost production.

“This will strengthen our capacity to combat the shocks of climate change, leading to improved livelihoods while facilitating food security. Rest assured, this represents merely a scratch on the surface of a broader drive to grow and transform agriculture in Jamaica,” he said.

The irrigation travellers (five type 100 R2/1A and two type 100 R2/1B travelers) were procured for the research station at a cost of approximately $35.37 million, to improve productivity and increase the acreage of pasture under irrigation from 168 acres to 400 acres.

This includes small ruminant pastures where the irrigation system will be restored under the Rehabilitation of Research Centres Project phase 2.

“Here at Bodles, we have a cattle herd of over 300 animals and a small ruminant herd of over 482 animals, primarily for research purposes and distribution to farmers,” the Agriculture Minister pointed out.

These herds are dependent on pastures established with grasses such as pangola, king, Mombasa, star, sorghum, sugar cane, and Limpo, with protein legumes on the borders such as moringa, Gliricidia, Trichanthera, and Leucaena.

“The investment is about increasing the quality and quantity of the forages that we have here. It is really about boosting our productivity, increasing our efficiency in relation to water resources and overall treating with our ability to deal with the impact of climate change on livestock production. If we are going to have a sustainable livestock sector, we have to deal with nutrition and make investments that give us greater quantities of those [outputs],” he said.