Ministry says Agri Parks up and running
KINGSTON, Jamaica — Chief executive officer of the Agro-Investment Corporation (AIC), Everton Spencer said that the necessary infrastructure is in place and work commenced at government’s recently-announced Agro Parks.
AIC is a division of the Ministry of Agriculture.
According to Spencer three Agro-Parks are currently in operation, Plantain Garden River in St Thomas, Amity Hall in St Catherine and Ebony Park in Clarendon.
Two other parks, Yallahs and New Forest/Duffus in St Thomas are set to begin operations later this year, Spencer told the Jamaica Observer.
He said that of the 120 acres at the Plantain Garden River location 50 acres are currently in production with over 40 farmers planting 40 acres of onions and 10 acres of ginger. A local producer has agreed to purchase the onions, while an export arm of the Ministry will purchase the ginger, Spencer said.
At Amity Hall, with a total 2,000 acres, farmers are producing Sorghum, a substitute for animal feed.
“The AIC leased 800 acres of land to Caribbean Broilers, of which the entire amount of acreage has already been cleared and planting has commenced. To date 138 acres of sorghum have been planted,” Spencer said.
He added that the entire area should be planted by October this year.
“By year end, Caribbean Broilers and another entity will have an entire 1,500 acres of sorghum to substitute a portion of imported corn, now used as animal feed”.
Mixed products such as onions and vegetables now occupy another 400 acres.
Spencer said that over 800 acres of the Ebony Park location will be engaged this year. 250 acres of Onions, peppers, vegetables and tubers are already in production he said.
“AIC will implement drainage and irrigation facilities to serve the full 800 acres and up to the entire 2,000 acres in Ebony Park next year,” he added.
Spencer said that the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has approved the re-allocation of funds to support four other Agro-parks as part of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Agreement.
He added that as a condition of the agreement nine agro-parks should be rolled out by 2015.
