TRELAWNY, Jamaica— Farmers who cultivate crops in the communities of Penn Road in Stettin and Thompson Town in the Trelawny Southern constituency, are urging the authorities to rehabilitate the roads which lead to their farms.

 According to Dwight Taylor, a yam farmer in Stettin, the road in his area has been impassable for a long time. He added however that conditions have worsened since the increase in rainfall over the past couple of weeks.

“The road is affecting everybody who lives around there and who have farms. Even the donkey dem scared to pass because di road is very bad. Mi plant yam around there and when yuh passing, yuh have to be extra careful or you can fall in the holes in the road because they are very, very deep,” lamented Taylor.

 Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA) parish manager for Trelawny Courtney Taylor says the poor road conditions have contributed to a reduction in domestic crop production in the parish.

 He said however that plans are afoot to have the roads repaired.

Addressing the regular monthly general meeting of the Trelawny Municipal Corporation on Thursday, the RADA parish manager noted that during the second quarter of this year, domestic crop production in the parish declined by over four per cent when compared with the corresponding period in 2019.

“A lot of production is around that road [Stettin and Thompson Town areas]. For that entire stretch of area, we service about a 100 farmers. I was told that there was a culvert there at a particular section and because of the heavy downpour the area got saturated so the road gave way. That is one of the roads which is slated to be rehabilitated under the RADA Road Rehabilitation Programme. It was approved and in short order, we should be doing some work on this road,” he OBSERVER ONLINE.

Onome Sido