Hon Floyd Green (left), Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, greets Peter Thompson, Chief Executive Officer of the Rural Agricultural Authority (RADA), at a meeting with senior directors of RADA at the Ministry’s Hope Gardens Office in St. Andrew on September 22, 2020.

Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, Hon Floyd Green, is urging the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA) to ensure that the information being provided to farmers is data-driven and technology based.

Noting that the growth of the sector and the operations of RADA are intrinsically linked, Minister Green said that he had highest expectation from RADA as its operations directly impact the performance of the Ministry.

Minister Green was addressing senior directors of RADA at a briefing meeting held at the Ministry’s Hope Gardens office in St. Andrew on September 22 where he outlined his vision for the agency.

The Agriculture Minister also charged RADA to ensure that its extension officers are adequately equipped to provide real-time expert advice to farmers even as he acknowledged that the agency was hard-pressed to provide extension services to the over 220,00 registered farmers.

“Our extension services have to be real, they have to reach and they have to impact the farmers,” said Minister Green.

Minister Green said that with that in mind the structure and reach of RADA would be examined in order to ensure that RADA fulfils its mandate. He also said that included in this restructuring would be greater infusion of technology, strengthening of support services and expansion of extension services to farmers.

Other topics discussed at the meeting included formalisation of storage and distribution channels for farmers, development of an instrument for monitoring and assessment of projects/programmes to ensure that interventions help farmers to enhance their operations and ultimately lead to sustainable engagement.

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