Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, Pearnel Charles Jr, discusses growing of lettuce using hydroponic system with Samantha Thomas Myrie, student at Montego Bay Community College in St. James.

The Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, Pearnel Charles Jr, is calling on stakeholders to make strategic investments in the agricultural sector to drive increased use of innovation and technology to support the country meeting its food security targets.

Jamaica is well on its way to achieving production estimates set for the present year, but the Minister is urging the need for more focused investments, particularly in the value-added industry.

Over the last week, the Minister engaged in discussions with several international groups as the Ministry seeks to set up strategic partnerships to push its Grow Smart, Eat Smart food security plan.

The campaign was launched in April with the goal of prioritizing resources for the best outcomes by utilizing scarce resources to maximize production output. The Grow Smart, Eat Smart national campaign is also a joint inter-ministry effort that not only promotes planting with the purpose to satisfy the local dietary needs of Jamaicans but also to encourage eating smart with emphasis on better nutrition and value-added consumption.

According to the Minister, we must do all that is necessary to ensure food produced is utilized in as many ways as possible to reduce waste and loss by using enhanced post-harvest operations and by introducing infrastructure to support the extended value chain.

While discussions are at a preliminary stage, the Minister is welcoming the renewed interest in the agricultural sector arising from several high-level meetings with potential investors who identify Jamaica as a high opportunity jurisdiction.

“Our goal is to increase investment to build capacity and resilience in agriculture and fisheries sectors so that we are better prepared to withstand climate change and better able to respond to and potential disruptions to the supply of food supply and key inputs,” the Minister reiterated.

In addition, the Ministry has been ramping up efforts through its collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) joint Food Loss and Waste Prevention Programme.

The US$220,000 (J$33,605,242) project aims to reduce the loss of food produced due to post-harvest diseases through the strengthening of the technical capacity of the MOAF and the Rural Agricultural Development Authority to improve production and post-harvest handling practices as well as to leverage public and private investment.

The project also seeks to provide technical assistance to the MOAF to design mobile storage and HACCP-compliant processing solutions for fresh and primary processed produce arising from the project.

Another key output of the project is to improve data collection through the utilization of digital data on food loss and waste in soft leafy green vegetables and monitor Jamaica’s progress in achieving SDG target 12.3, which states that:

“By 2030, halve per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels and reduce food losses along production and supply chains, including post-harvest losses."

To date, the consultant to support the execution of the pilot has been identified, procurement of cold storage and solar systems has been initiated, potential pilot locations have been identified and the technical committee has been organized.

The project is now entering the implementation stage and Minister Charles Jr is stressing the importance of this project, which is a critical component of the Grow Smart, Eat Smart plan, to ensure that Jamaicans have access to safe, nutritious and affordable foods.

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