RADA Gets Additional $60 Million to Build Water Catchment Points

The Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA) has been provided with an additional $60 million for the buildout of water catchment points.

Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining, Hon. Floyd Green, in making the disclosure, said that the catchments will be situated in 25 high-yield farming areas.

“What we’re doing is looking for areas where we have highly productive farmers to build catchments so that when we do have rain, as we’ve started to have some rain now, that we’re able to catch that water and utilise it in those farming communities,” he said.

He was addressing a media briefing at the Ministry’s Hope Gardens headquarters in St. Andrew on Tuesday (September 22), where he gave an update on the country’s drought-mitigation measures.

Minister Green said the Government has been proactive in its response with an initial $135.25 million allocated for various initiatives to assist farmers across the island.

Of the sum, $60.25 million went to Members of Parliament for direct support to farmers, $15 million to the National Irrigation Commission (NIC) to facilitate trucking, and $60 million to the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA) for trucking and distribution of micro-irrigation kits.

RADA has, so far, delivered 1,900 loads of water to farming communities across eight priority parishes – St. Thomas, Portland, St. Mary, Westmoreland, Clarendon, St. Catherine, St. Elizabeth and Manchester, and distributed tanks and micro-irrigation drip kits.

The NIC has trucked 2.82 million gallons of water free of cost to farmers, particularly those in irrigation zones in St. Elizabeth, Trelawny, St. Ann and Manchester.

In addition, some water systems have also been extended to operate for up to 16 hours per day to provide greater support to farmers.

Minister Green said 1,760 farmers have been trained in water management, soil moisture conservation, drought-tolerant crop varieties, plant decisions and managing heat stress on crops and livestock.

He assured that the Ministry will continue to implement measures to alleviate the impact of the drought, which, he noted, had already resulted in an approximately 15 per cent decline in crop production.

Mr. Green said that approximately 70 per cent of farmers depend on rainfall for productive activity, resulting in some reducing the size of their plots when rainfall is inadequate.