Job fair targets sugar workers
Residents of Lionel Town and surrounding areas of Clarendon, who were previously employed to the closed Monymusk Sugar Factory and who intend to pursue farming on acreages of former sugar lands, are to benefit from input materials such as seeds and fertilisers.
The fertiliser is to be sourced from some 2,400 tonnes being provided by the Kingdom of Morocco to the Government’s Production Incentive Programme.
State Minister in the Ministry of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries Floyd Green confirmed that 48 containers of fertilisers were also received from the North African nation as a gift to the people of Jamaica.
“I really want to take the time to thank the Kingdom of Morocco for the fertilisers to support the Government’s Production Incentive Programme. They have supported the programme which targets priority crops such as onions and potatoes and others we have identified in treating with import substitution,” he said.
Green was speaking at a job fair organised by the HEART Trust/NTA in collaboration with the ministry, the National Irrigation Commission (NIC), and the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA), at Pawsey Park in Lionel Town on November 29.
The fair sought to target displaced sugar workers, their families, and community members from the Monymusk area and is a planned strategy by the Government to provide assistance.
He also informed that, under a $45-million Alternative Livelihood Programme, provisions are being made for interested factory workers to receive training in the areas of entrepreneurship, cottage industry development and agri-business.
Additionally, he indicated that the Government is examining a total of seven expressions of interest for the operations at the Monymusk factory and he also pointed to one for the management of the Golden Grove Sugar Factory in St Thomas.
“Clearly, the evaluations (of these factories) have to be conducted with significant rigour and due diligence because we have to ensure we involve the current owners to whom the factories were divested. So, we are currently undertaking that process,” he said.
