Agro-Invest Corporation (AIC) — the facilities management and investment promotion arm of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, intended to reduce the country’s food import bill — said the country’s seven agro parks registered an agricultural output of $316.8 million in the 2019/20 financial year.

The agro parks gross production figure for the period under review was about 2.6 million kilogrammes, representing an increase of just over 477 thousand kilogrammes or 18.09 per cent over the previous financial year, according to AIC’s 2020 annual report.

The production figure represents the products produced, substituted for imports and exported from the agro parks.

The net increase was attributable to new market linkages and more arable lands made available for production activities.

Agro Invest CEO Dr Al Powell told the Jamaica Observer, “We have been contributing continuously to agricultural development at the back end meaning increased production, employment of youths, reduced rural unemployment, contributing to import-substitution , providing raw material for agro-processing and exports and generally contribution at every level of the value chain”.

The agency, under the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, is tasked with the mobilisation, financing and facilitation of investment in the agricultural sector.

There are five agro parks: Plantain Garden River (St Thomas), Amity Hall (St Catherine), Ebony Park (Clarendon), Spring Plain (Clarendon),Holland Estates (St Elizabeth); and two private parks — Yallahs (St Thomas) and New Forest/Duff House (Manchester).

Additionally, the production zones are at Low Leyton/Lennox (Portland), Enfield (Westmoreland), Wallen (St Catherine), New Pen (St Mary), Rhymesbury (Clarendon), Non-Such/ Unity (St Mary), Fort George (St Mary), and Spring Garden (Portland).

Implemented nine years ago, the agro parks were aimed at modernising Jamaica’s agricultural sector, facilitating the promotion of public/private partnership investments, as well as contributing to reducing the island’s almost US$1-billion food import bill, while increasing exports and creating jobs.

In response to a Caribbean Business Report query, Powell said that officially the new targets have not yet been approved by the Board of Directors and as such, cannot be shared. He did state however, that AIC’s intention is to significantly increase the productive output of the agro parks and production zones.

As a result, it has set its sights on putting at least 2,000 more acres of land into production for the financial year 2022/23.

This expansion, Powell said, would increase the overall output on the agro parks and production zones between 30-40 per cent, thereby contributing more to the growth in the agriculture sector and the economy.

At present, the country’s seven agro parks and eight production zones cover over 6,000 acres.

Notwithstanding, AIC in its report indicated that, “Though the mandate is the driving force behind our strategy; the daunting task of operating on a daily basis with the limited constraints of government funding continues to hamper our operations. The lack of financial resources to outfit the agro parks with the proper infrastructure including roads, irrigation, light, drainage and human capital pose the biggest threat to fulfilling our mandate and making the meaningful”.

Furthermore, Powell told the Caribbean Business Report that while there are challenges with irrigation, the Government is cognisant of the issue and “working tirelessly to provide funding for irrigation development on the agro parks and production zones over the next three-year period FY 2022/23 – 2024/25”.

In May, the then Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries Floyd Green, during his 2021/22 Sectoral Debate presentation in the House of Representatives, said the Government will spend $605 million this year to lay irrigation pipelines and strengthen capacity-building initiatives within the agriculture sector.

Powell noted that currently over 60 per cent of the agro parks and production zones already have irrigation infrastructure.