November 1 (JIS): The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining will be increasing support for vegetable farmers, as the island continues to experience intense rainfall. Portfolio Minister, Hon. Floyd Green, said that the farmers have been suffering damage due to the rains. “We are seeing tremendous declines in the production of our vegetable lines, firstly because of the drought, then the elevated heat caused a separate issue and now because of the intense bouts of rainfall. “We have seen losses over the last month in parts of Portland, in parts of St. Thomas [and] in some of our vegetable belts in northern Clarendon,” he noted. Minister Green, who was addressing Wednesday’s (November 1) post-Cabinet press briefing at Jamaica House, said that the Ministry is keeping a close watch on weather systems that have formed. The Meteorological Service has advised that a broad trough, currently located across the central Caribbean, is producing a large area of cloudiness with showers and thunderstorms and is expected to linger across the region through to Friday. A flash flood watch is in effect for low-lying and flood prone areas of St. Mary, St. Thomas, Portland, Kingston and St. Catherine and until 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday. The Met Service said that due to persistent rainfall across eastern parishes and St Catherine over the past few days, and the likely soil saturation, any additional rainfall could result in flash flooding and possible landslides. Minister Green noted that the continued rainfall “does not augur well for our farmers, especially in eastern Jamaica,” but stressed that they will receive assistance. “We are going to put additional support to those vegetable farmers to help them bounce back, especially as we look towards Christmas,” he pledged.

• ‹ Previous
• Next ›

Page