RADA Executing Two-Year Plan for Recovery of Agriculture

• The Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA) is implementing a structured, three-fold, two-year recovery plan for Jamaica’s agricultural sector following estimated damage of over US$30.0Bn from Hurricane Melissa. The plan spans immediate, medium-term and long-term interventions and mobilises RADA’s full technical, extension and engineering teams, while leveraging partnerships among key agencies, farmer groups and the private sector.
• Immediate actions, to be implemented over the first three months after the hurricane’s passage, involve emergency interventions and damage assessments. Within the first 90 days, RADA conducted rapid damage assessments across all 14 parishes and distributed more than US$40.0Mn in materials, including seeds, fertilisers and planting materials, while also commencing six months of free land preparation services, including ploughing, tilling and land clearing to help farmers replant faster.
• Additional short-term support measures include the recent handover of six walk-behind tractors, with another four tractors dispatched into service, alongside the procurement of US$50.0Mn worth of seeds expected to impact some 1,000 hectares of vegetables, roots and tubers in strategic zones, and the start of distribution of more than 500,000 sweet potato slips and other clean planting material.
• Medium-term interventions (three to 12 months) will focus on rehabilitation of infrastructure, farmer training and supply-chain restoration, while long-term interventions (12 to 24 months) will centre on building climate resilience, diversifying production and modernising farm systems, as part of a broader effort to strengthen the sector beyond its pre-hurricane condition.
• As it relates to the loss of vegetable crops in St. Elizabeth, Westmoreland and other parishes, RADA has shifted production to the eastern part of the island, where farmers were less affected and are willing to produce to make up for the shortfall.

(Source: JIS)