WATER VALLEY, St Ann — Noranda Jamaica Bauxite Partners has expanded its agriculture community outreach project, whereby several farmers in parts of rural St Ann have been engaged in greenhouse farming on reclaimed mined-out land.

Public relations superintendent at Noranda, Kent Skyers outlined during a press tour of several greenhouses in a section of the Water Valley community called Burnt Ground on Tuesday that the greenhouse project had created new opportunities for the farmers.

“We have 18 greenhouses where persons from the local communities are involved in what we call agriculture at the highest level,” Skyers told reporters. “The intention that we have is to make this location to be the centre of greenhouse operation in Jamaica,” he said.

The company started the greenhouse project about two years ago in partnership with the Jamaica Bauxite Institute and the United States Agency for International Development with three houses.

Skyers said that the project had grown significantly as 15 new greenhouses, costing approximately $7 million, had been constructed and that some of those houses were made from local material.

Nine farmers are involved in the project and Skyers said that those farmers had helped other small farmers in adjoining communities to set up their own greenhouses. He said that around 12 other houses had been built in neighbouring areas.

Farmers are now involved in producing cucumber, tomatoes, broccoli, lettuce, and sweet pepper and those produces are sold to markets in St Ann and St James.

Skyers said that getting water to the farmers had been a challenge, but that two water catchments, fitted with solar pumping systems, were created to help ease what was a major problem for farmers.

He explaind that the catchments can hold approximately eight million gallons of water and were constructed at a cost of around $6 million. He added that since the project was introduced, it had done well and he anticipates even greater production in the near future.

Skyers said that the company was also looking at developing another phase of the project and intends to set up cold storage facilities to provide adequate storage for an expected increase in production.

“As it is now, marketing of the products (is) not a challenge, but we know that when we have additional houses we’ll have that challenge, our intention is to get to the larger hotels and the larger distributors,” he said.

One of the farmers involved in the project, Casgrave Campbell — who cultivates tomatoes, sweet peppers and broccoli — said that the initiative had transformed farming in the deep rural community.

“It is just excellent, it is a good programme. It has really helped us as farmers,” Campbell said as he commended the bauxite company on the initiative. He also wants other corporate companies to support programmes that can assist farmers.

Meanwhile, Skyers said that Noranda had also set up greenhouses at York Castle and Brown’s Town high schools and the Aboukir Institute as well as assisting in the construction of the facility at Aabuthnott Gallimore High.

Principal of Brown’s Town High, Johnallson Feraria, said the greenhouse is an added boost to the agriculture division of the school as it introduces students to a new dimension of farming.

“The students are now able to produce crops in an out of season under controlled conditions. It (greenhouse) is so designed that you can grow whichever crop you choose at any time,” said Feraria, who added that the system was also set up to feed water and nutrients to the plants in liquefied form.

He said that cucumber and sweet pepper already reaped from the greenhouse had been sold on the open market, while a portion was used at the school. Students are now experimenting with escallion and tomato, the principal added.