Growth & Jobs | Gov’t to increase support to agri sector

Government support for agriculture will be strengthened this year to boost productivity and enhance the sector’s contribution to gross domestic product (GDP).

Agriculture currently contributes about 8.3 per cent of GDP, and the aim is to get to the nine per cent mark, said Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining Floyd Green.

“I believe that [this] will be an exceptional year for agriculture and for our farmers. This financial year, we provided about $1 billion in production incentive, and $800 million to our farm road programme.

“We will be advocating for more, especially for farm roads. We want to bring that farm road programme to over $1 billion this year, and to continue our production incentive programme to over $1 billion and beyond, so that we can do more. What we want is to move up our contribution to GDP,” he said.

Minister Green was addressing the Rural Agricultural Development Authority’s (RADA’s) staff devotion on Wednesday, January 3, at the Ministry’s Hope Gardens location in St Andrew.

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He noted that works on irrigation systems in Parnassus in Clarendon and Amity Hall in St Catherine are targeted for completion this year, which will assist in increasing the sector’s output.

“This year, 2024, our Parnassus and Amity Hall irrigation schemes will come on track. We will finish and commission it this year,” he pledged.

MORE RESILIENT

Minister Green noted that 2023 was a challenging year for the agricultural sector, citing the prolonged droughts with excessively high temperatures, followed by severe flooding in some sections of the island, all of which led to a decline in production.

He expressed optimism for the outlook of the sector, noting that the crafting of critical agricultural programmes and projects will assist in creating a more resilient industry that is better able to manage the vagaries of climate change.

“Even though we did see a year of decline, I want us to take heart in the fact that we did well. In 2021, we passed our highest level of production ever when we reached about 700,000 tonnes. In 2022, we surpassed that and went to about 800,000 tonnes, the highest level of production ever. [For 2023] we are down by about 10 per cent, but, when you look at our figures, we are still doing better than we were doing prior to COVID- 19, which means that, ultimately, we are building a more resilient agriculture sector,” he said.