PEDRO PLAINS, St Elizabeth – A US$3.5-million irrigation scheme described by Agriculture Minister Roger Clarke as “history being made” was commissioned into service by Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller at Pedro Plains, South-West St Elizabeth Thursday.

Located in Jamaica’s most drought-prone farming area, the Pedro Plains Irrigation System, funded by the Jamaican Government and the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), will provide water for about 360 farmers on 160 hectares (one hectare is approximately 2.5 acres) of land.

The irrigation water will flow from wells in Little Park where Thursday’s commissioning ceremony took place and at Beacon – also in SW St Elizabeth.

It is the first of three “flagship projects” of the National Irrigation Commission (NIC) Ltd to be commissioned this year at a cost of US$12 million. The others, Seven Rivers in St James and the Rehabilitation of the Hounslow Irrigation Scheme also in South-West St Elizabeth is set for completion and commissioning in July and September.

Managing Director of the NIC, Donovan Reid, told the Observer that another five projects costing $21 million are being planned for the next four years. They are Essex Valley in South East St Elizabeth, Colbeck in St Catherine, Yallahs in St Thomas, New Forest/Duff House on the South Manchester/South East St Elizabeth border and St Dorothy in St Catherine.

All told, 51 irrigation projects at a cost of US$106.3 million are in the “pipeline” for completion by 2015-20.

Simpson Miller said the commissioning of the Pedro Plains Irrigation Scheme was another step in the drive to develop rural Jamaican communities.

“I feel that in the same way we have placed over the many years a focus on the development of our cities and urban centres, I feel time come when we should be placing the same emphasis and giving priority attention to rural development,” she said.

And while insisting that she had no intention of making “empty promises”, the prime minister pledged to the “farmers of St Elizabeth” that the irrigation scheme was among the projects, “I would like to see implemented across the country”.

She was anxious to ensure that her government would not only talk about projects but would implement them to “impact the lives of the Jamaican people”.

Clarke said irrigation schemes were just reward for the farmers of South St Elizabeth who have used their “pioneering” techniques in dry farming to feed the nation despite a paucity of water.

President of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) Dr Compton Bourne joined others in paying tribute to the farmers for their dry farming method which he said he had seen “nowhere else.