Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining, Hon. Floyd Green, addresses an audience at the Spur Tree Spices Jamaica ‘Spice Up Di Ting’ Launch held on May 1, at the Jamaica Promotions Corporation’s (JAMPRO) Kingston office.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining has embarked on a project, through the Jamaica Agricultural Commodities Regulatory Authority (JACRA), with the support of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to develop several of our local spices at a cost of US$22,604,770 over the next five years.
Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining, Hon Floyd Green, said the Ministry intends, through this project, to cultivate at least 100 acres of pimento.
“In fact, this year we would have distributed about 7000 pimento plants to help drive our pimento production,” he outlined during his address at the Spur Tree Spices Jamaica ‘Spice Up Di Ting’ Launch held on May 1, at the Jamaica Promotions Corporation’s (JAMPRO) Kingston office.
Ginger and turmeric were also named as target spices for development.
“We are working under that project to bring back significant growth in our ginger sector and our turmeric sector. If you don’t know, we have the best turmeric in the word. Again, it was largely harvested from the wild and we are now setting up nurseries to ensure that we can distribute these plants,” Minister Green explained.
The agriculture minister indicated that over the years, there have been some challenges with preserving the authenticity and production of scotch bonnet
peppers and has shared that the government is actively investing in addressing the issues.
“We have invested significant sums in relation to Bodles to establish two brand new greenhouses to really look at the rapid multiplication scheme for our scotch bonnet seeds,” Minister Green shared.
He adds that the investment increased seed production from 20,000 seeds in 2022 to 50,000 in 2023. Similarly, Minister Green highlighted that a new greenhouse was established at the Montpelier Research Station to drive the production of red pepper in an effort to increase the number of seeds that are supplied to farmers and companies.
Additionally, Minister Green outlined that the Ministry is collaborating with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to drive the rapid multiplication of seeds by establishing a database and seed technology facility and training 25 personnel at an approximate cost of US $1,000,000.
“We want to ensure that we maintain that authentic scotch bonnet flavour profile. You can’t do it unless you have the database. You can’t do it unless you are recording the germplasms. You can’t do it unless you know exactly what is happening with your seed pool,” Minister Green added.
Meanwhile, the agriculture minister noted that there is significant growth in onion production.
“Last year, we would have grown by 46%. I was looking at the figures this year and it appears that we would have grown in excess of 200% in relation to the production of onions,” Minister Green highlighted.
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