THE ongoing drought, coupled with an inadequate potable water system, have taken a toll on the two-year plant biodiversity project at Shortwood Teachers’ College in St Andrew.

More than 90 species of endemic plants and vegetables planted under the project are slowly drying up, forcing participants to find ingenious means to keep them alive.

“Our main challenge with the project right now is the ongoing drought conditions,” said Claudette Barrett-Thorpe, the science and environment educator at the insitution who has been running the project.

“The drought has hit us really hard. The vegetables which we have been growing have not done as well (as we would want them because of the drought),” she said. “Because of this, we have not grown as many crops to sell to make funds to put back into the project.”

The project, sponsored by the Environmental Foundation of Jamaica (EFJ) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF), is geared toward transforming the teachers’ college and six neighbouring basic schools into “green-learning communities”, Barrett-Thorpe said.

The project, which began in August 2008, has four primary objectives, namely:

* the development of a plant database;

* the training of students and staff in biodiversity management and conservation;

* to spread the programme at the included basic schools; and

* to preserve Jamaica’s endemic flora, including orchids.

Through the programme, more than 150 pounds of vegetables have been grown and supplied to the college cafeteria over a six-month period. However, that assistance has increasingly diminished due to the ravages of the drought.

Barrett-Thorpe said at least one endemic plant and a several acres of vegetables have perished under the sweltering heat.

“The crops that we should have reaped in September we could not and so they died. As a result of that we had to wait because we were advised that we should not replant immediately in the same ground, ” she told Environment Watch. “We couldn’t plant until late October and we really haven’t been getting any rain since.”

Undeterred, however, Barrett-Thorpe said the group has implemented a drip irrigation sytem, using plastic bottles with holes in the bottom to regulate the flow of water to the roots of the plants. That helps to keep the soil moist longer, the educator said.

The effect on the plants was striking during a visit to the school recently. The Blue Mountain Yacca and the Jamaica Green Heart, for example, appeared flaccid, their leaves and stems dried out by the sun and a lack of water. In the vegetable garden, a patch of thyme plants were whitened by dry dust which clung to their leaves.

The project, which saw approximately $2 million donated by the EFJ and US$25,000 from the GEF, has resulted in the training of more than 60 students and staff at the college in plant biodiversity.