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‘Plant the Ginger’ – PM Golding Urges Clarendon Farmers

May 26, 2009

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Prime Minister the Hon. Bruce Golding has urged farmers in Clarendon to use the technology and expertise available to them to plant more and better ginger.
Mr. Golding was visiting the community of Top Alston in Clarendon, which was abuzz with activity on Labour Day yesterday (May 25), continuing the project to establish a ginger sucker nursery. Farmers are being encouraged to use suckers as the survival rate of the plants is higher and the yield greater. The project is also training the farmers to run a proper, organised, scientific business.
Reminding the community that their labour produced a portion of ten per cent of the world’s best ginger, Mr. Golding said we are not benefiting as much as we should. “This project is intended to bring new technology to improve the yield so that farmers can produce more. We are going to bring some technology and bring some management in the area to uplift the quality of ginger farming.”
“Now is a chance for you to take off again. I want you to go plant the ginger. We need to do more with what we produce before we ship it away,” the Prime Minster said noting that the Government was committed to using ginger in other products instead of exporting raw ginger.
After planting a ginger sucker in the covered nursery, the Prime Minister officially opened the refurbished agricultural centre which was repaired by the Jamaica Defence Force. The centre had been closed since being damaged during a hurricane a few years ago.
He told the farmers, “We have to stop sending away our stuff in the raw stage…food processing, adding value, is going to be where our Government is going to be taking agriculture, marrying agriculture with manufacturing so that we can get more value out of our project. What is being done here with ginger is an important plank in that effort.”
The Top Alston ginger project is enabled by the Scientific Research Council (SRC), the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF), the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA) and the Christiana Potato Growers Association.

Last Updated: August 27, 2013

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