Senior Agronomist at the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA), Locksley Waites (fourth from left), shares insight on the quality of the Irish potatoes with (from left) Ryan Lewis, farmer; Member of Parliament for South East St. Ann, Lisa Hanna; Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining, Hon. Floyd Green, and Minister of State in the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining, Hon. Franklin Witter. The occasion was a tour of Irish potato and hot pepper farms in St. Ann on Wednesday, March 13.
There is an upward trend in Irish potato production for 2024. Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining, Hon. Floyd Green, made the disclosure yesterday, March 13, during a tour of Irish potato and hot pepper farms in St. Ann.
The increase in production is attributed to the support provided by the Ministry through the Production Incentive Programme (PIP), which is spearheaded by the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA), in which beneficiaries receive assistance with inputs such as planting material and fertilizer.
Minister Green outlined that the programme is focused primarily on Irish potato and hot pepper production across production zones like the Hinds Town belt in the parish and has expressed that he is delighted with the performance of the farmers in this and other surrounding areas.
“Very impressed with what we have been seeing from the farmers and we have seen some record productivity metrics. Farmers are actually surpassing our national averages and even surpassing, in some instances, world averages for production of Irish potato per hectare,” he shared.
The agriculture minister highlighted that this achievement is particularly significant as Irish potato production was not spared the negative impact of the drought in 2023.
“Last year we had a very challenging year with our Irish potato programme largely because of the drought and we asked the team at the ministry to redouble their efforts, to look back at the programme, to look at the technical support they were providing the farmers and also to look at providing more access to water so that our farmers would have better outcomes in this production cycle,” he outlined.
Concerning irrigation support, Minister Green shared that the Ministry has put in place measures to mitigate the impact of the drought on agricultural productivity.
“We have not just looked at the drought and not done anything for the new production cycle. We have decided to invest a lot of the PIP into water catchment facilities so that our farmers when they get rain, they will be able to harvest that water and have it for the dry season.”
“So, we were able to unveil one of these catchment facilities in the Hinds Town region and that will serve multiple farmers. They will be able now to come put in their pumps and get out that water and use that to ensure that they have better outcomes from their fields,” he added.
Additionally, Minister Green has also noted that there has been an increase in the number of farmers entering hot pepper production. He said the Ministry has been ramping up its support of hot pepper production through the PIP because of a noticeable increase in the export of sauces. This, he says, is to position the country to be able to provide the raw materials necessary to keep that sector going.
