Hon J.C. Hutchinson (left), Minister without Portfolio in the Ministry of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries, traverses recently completed Bingham Hill Road in St. Ann, along with, from left, Member of Parliament for South West St. Ann, Hon Zavia Mayne; Lennoy Prendergast, Works Engineer, and Chief Executive Officer Peter Thompson, both of the Rural Agricultural Development Authority(RADA). The occasion was the official opening of the road that was rehabilitated by the RADA at a cost of $6.9 million under the National Farm Roads Rehabilitation Programme, on July 16, 2020.
Farmers and other residents of Bingham Hill and surrounding communities in St. Ann had high praises for the recently rehabilitated $6.9-million Bingham Hill road in St. Ann.
The road was one of 77 farm roads completed by the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA) under the Ministry of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries’ National Farm Road Programme in the 2019/2020 financial year at a cost of $561 million.
With the rehabilitation of the road it is now easier for the 1,800 farmers to get to their fields and transport their goods to market as well as the children to get to school. The upgraded Bingham Road is part of the ongoing farm road improvements in the parish, with some $42 million expended over the past two financial years.
“With 23,188 registered farmers in the parish of St. Ann contributing 1,500 hectares of domestic food crops and 45 acres of protected agriculture, farmers are encouraged to increase production based on these extensive road networks,” said Minister without Portfolio in the Ministry of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries, Hon. J.C. Hutchinson, at its official opening on July 16.
For the 2020/2021 financial year, Minister Hutchinson said that Government has allocated a total of $525 million for the rehabilitation of 56 farm roads islandwide.
Chief Executive Officer of RADA, Peter Thompson, said the rehabilitated Bingham Hill farm road will help to increase farming activities in the area.
Noting that the road was very strategic to RADA as it runs through several communities, Thompson commended the RADA team and all the other stakeholders who made it possible.
