Rio Cobre Dam Conversion Project Providing Reliable Access to Water for Farmers

St. Catherine farmers are being provided with reliable access to water to boost agricultural production under the Rio Cobre Dam Head and Bushy Park Canal Conversion Project.

The National Irrigation Commission (NIC), which owns the Rio Cobre Dam, continues to divert water from the river into an open canal for agricultural uses, including freshwater fish farming.

The project provides irrigation for up to 13,500 hectares (8,650 acres) of land to the south, as well as municipal water to Spanish Town.

Speaking to JIS News during a tour of the project on Tuesday (March 18), Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining, Hon. Floyd Green, said that the initiative has enabled the delivery of water to farmers more efficiently and at a lower cost.

“So, we have been on a drive to convert areas of our canal system to a piped system. What that does is to increase efficiency, reduce our losses and just provide a more consistent supply to our farmers, while still getting the benefits from having a system that is gravity-fed so we keep the costs down,” he noted.

He said that the project has bolstered production.

“What we have seen from the conversion is a reduction in leakage, reduction in theft and just greater utilisation by the people who actually need it,” he pointed out.

“Our investors, our farmers are expanding… because they have a consistent supply of water,” the Minister said.

Minister Green informed that the NIC will continue to expand access to water irrigation, including converting areas where the canal is deteriorating into pipelines.

“This is, again, in our drive to ensure that we are looking at the climate realities, that we are providing access to water to our farmers, and that we are driving new industries. We are ensuring that our freshwater fish farmers are able to expand their investments,” he said.

Meanwhile, Minister Green informed that an additional $230 million has been allocated for the farm road programme, to help farmers transport their produce from their fields to market.

He noted, further, that with $6 billion going to research more than six years, “we are truly putting genuine resources into agriculture, plus we are about $3 billion in capital expenditure, which is significant”.