RADA Encourages Householders to Embrace Container Gardening

The Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA) is encouraging householders to adopt container gardening as a practical means of subsistence.

Container gardening is a space-efficient and mobile method of cultivation that involves growing plants in containers such as pots, rather than directly in the ground.

This approach is particularly well-suited for urban areas, where access to traditional garden space may be limited or unavailable.

Senior RADA Plant Health and Food Safety Officer, Francine Webb, noted that container gardening presents many possibilities.

“Container gardening is something that we have been pushing for a while. Even if you don’t have the space, you can do it in your backyard or on the back porch with containers. Those are the things that we’re going to have to embrace more and more now, because everybody has to start doing something,” she told JIS News.

Ms. Webb stated that, in response to the effects of Hurricane Melissa, particularly in food-producing parishes, the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining has been actively focused on its agricultural recovery programme.

“We have sat down, looked at the recovery programme in short and medium term in order to determine how do we assist our farmers. The support is going to be rolling out, but is it going to be enough and adequate? Which is why we’re calling on everybody to see just how best you can be of assistance, as well, where that is concerned,” she said.

Ms. Webb further reiterated the call for Jamaicans in parishes less severely impacted by the Category Five system to begin planting, emphasising the importance of proactive food production in support of national recovery.

“The call is now on householders. That is the way you can help Jamaica to recover, because we’re all in this together. [You can also] find out from your farmers nearby, what it is that they need in order to get back up,” she said.