To many small farmers in agriculture, the Rural Economic Development Initiative (REDI) will be sorely missed, following its formal end recently.

Having achieved milestones such as a 50 per cent increase in the number of greenhouses in the island to provide support for over 800 farmers, of which 41 per cent were women, the World Bank-funded project, which was implemented by the Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF) in 2010, exceeded most of its targets under its aim of improving market access for micro and small-scale rural agricultural producers, as well as the tourism product and service providers.

JSIF recently staged a closing symposium for the REDI project at the Mona Visitors’ Lodge and Conference Centre at The University of the West Indies, Mona in St Andrew, where the project’s beneficiaries, REDI representatives and various contributing stakeholders came together to celebrate the achievements of the project that was said to have impacted the lives of 22,000 rural Jamaicans.

One of the beneficiaries under the project, Deen Elliott, who is a part of the Ballards Valley Farmers Benevolent Society in St Elizabeth, shared that he could hardly find words to express his, as well as the farmers of South St Elizabeth’s, gratitude to JSIF and the World Bank for the project.

“It has changed the whole dynamics of how we use to farm. It has brought on a new way of farming for us where previously our method of farming was so unkind to us as farmers, where we used to use buckets and little cans to water plants,” Elliot shared.

“What this has done for us with the gift of storage tanks and drip kits … the watering methods of our plants in the dry season, it has allowed us to water thousands of plants which we previously could not have done,” he continued.

He said that the new advances, especially in the area of drip irrigation, have allowed the farmers to be much more productive, while also expressing his appreciation that the project was run in fair and non-partisan manner.

“I can’t express how grateful we the farmers of South St Elizabeth are to have gotten this tremendous gift, and I want to say from the bottom of my heart how grateful I am and as someone said before, we are ready for a second part of REDI,” Elliott stated.

Managing Director of JSIF Omar Sweeney in his remarks stated that he was pleased with the outputs of the projects, especially as JSIF had been working hard on the ground with the farmers and community tourism enterprises.

“Through the drip irrigation programme, 1,153 farmers benefitted from that. They were in 13 communities across five parishes and these farmers also contributed to the 762 tonnes of cash crops that are now produced annually, also targeted at reducing the food import bill,” Sweeney said in his remarks at the function.

“Within tourism, the REDI project was working in conjunction with the ministries of tourism and finance towards the national community tourism policy which was approved by Parliament in April of 2015, and the globally competitive Jamaica community experiences brand has also now been established as part of that project,” he added.

Other achievements included a partnership with the Caribbean Maritime Institute to train over 2,000 fisherfolk in basic seamanship and safety at sea, and the building of seven agro-processing incubators in seven parishes through partnership with the Rural Agricultural Development Authority.

Sweeney said that the project is poised towards the infrastructure and development capacity, and so it is really for the Government to take it and scale it up accordingly.

According to team leader Hubert Paulmer, from the Canadian Goss Gilroy Inc Management Consultants, who were contracted by JSIF to perform an independent external evaluation of the REDI project, the project exceeded all performance targets for their main objectives.

Based on interviews with 67 people, examination of over 65 documents, visits to 25 REDI project sites, among other indicators, Paulmer said some findings included that 61 per cent of rural enterprises increased sales, surpassing the original project target of 44 per cent. He added that 86 per cent of the REDI groups accessed new markets, and that the project had also exceeded their target with youth and women involvement.

“Looking at greenhouse technology, REDI put up 183 greenhouses, 160 of them were in eight clusters which had 20 in each cluster and 23 other greenhouses they had provided outside of this…and this covered an area of 471,000, square feet which is approximately 11 acres of land which is covered,” Paulmer stated.

He added that based on previous data collected, they knew that there were around 355 greenhouses in the country, which means REDI with their additions were able to further increase the number of greenhouses by 50 per cent.

In terms of recommendations, the team leader maintained that contingency plans to ensure beneficiaries continue to receive post-project support from specialised agencies was important, and that they should continue seeking approaches to partner and enhance market opportunities.

He added that the Government of Jamaica also needs to ensure that the REDI investment receives continued support, especially as it relates to technical and capacity building, which will be required at various levels by various agencies.