Over the next three years, Jamaica will plant eight thousand acres of rice, the biggest step taken by the industry since Government embarked on a programme to revive its production.

Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, Robert Montague said that the Rice Growers Association (RGA) has informed him that 250 acres will be planted by the end of November and will be ready for harvesting by March.

Montague said the objective is to produce a fifth of the 100,000 tonnes of rice imported annually at cost of US$70 million ($6 billion). To replace all Jamaica’s rice imports would require the planting of 40,000 acres.

“This is not farfetched and the RGA has given me their assurance that they will be planting, over the next three years, approximately 8,000 acres of rice out of that 40,000,” he said.

“If we produce 20 per cent of rice (that we import) it would be significant. It would see a lot of rural communities coming to life. We would see the multiplyer effects of that production and economic activities being translated into the little corner shops, into taximen being secured, into children going to school and that would demand more infrastructural development within various communities in Jamaica as more persons would be coming back to the land.”

This was a major step for the country’s food security and also for rural development, as rice production will help to keep persons farming, limiting rural-urban migration.

The minister was speaking at the handing over ceremony of two pieces of rice harvesting equipment to the Jamaica Rice Producers Association at Lindos’ Rice Farm in St Catherine on Thursday.

With spiraling food prices and heightened concerns about the nation’s food security, the Government in 2008 moved to re-establish the cultivation of rice.

While the country could, in theory, produce all the rice it consumes that is unlikely to be realised given the significant allocation of arable lands to sugarcane cultivation, said Derrick Nembhard, a director of the Jamaica Rice Milling Company.

The ministry, through the Agriculture Investment Company, has made 3,000 acres of land available to the private sector for rice production. It is also having discussions with Sugar Company Holding to acquire some land formerly used for growing cane.

Also, the Agriculture Credit Board has been mandated to come up with a special line of credit to facilitate rice production and will be meeting with the RGA to discuss the matter, Montague said.

The minister expressed gratitude to Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM), the parent company of Jamaica Rice Milling Company, for a donation to to the Jamaica Rice Producers Association

which he said will boost rice harvesting in the island. The two rice harvesters, valued at US$300,000, was donated by ADM Cares, the company charity.

President of the Jamaica Producers Association, Leslie James, noted that a lack of high quality equipment to reap the rice was one of the industry’s main challenges, along with bad weather and the high cost of transportation.

“The need for high quality and reliable machinery, especially in the area of harvesting, cannot be over emphasised. Imagine a situation when all funds have been depleted and you’re unable to reap your crop. All is lost, money, crop, collateral, even your house,” James said.

“Today is a very significant day in the development of the rice industry in Jamaica,” said James, “a day which marks the beginning of a journey that places the Jamaica rice industry on a viable and sustainable path.”

Meanwhile, Jeremy Thomas, representative of the of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), said the organisation is working to provide 70 acres of land to rice farmers in Elim, St Elizabeth, and Amity in St Catherine. Thomas said land preparation is well under way. The FAO has already procured fertilisers and is in the process of getting additional rice seedlings to supplement those they have already provided.