MORE than 700 small farmers have benefited from more than $200 million in earnings through the Ministry of Tourism’s Agri-Linkages Exchange (ALEX), a platform which connects small farmers directly with buyers in the tourism industry.

Making the announcement while opening the 2023/24 Sectoral Debate in the House of Representatives on Tuesday, Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett said that under the ALEX platform “we have provided 786 farmers with opportunities to sell their products to the tourism sector”.

He noted that this was faciltated during the first three months of the year, noting that the benificiaries included pineapple and strawberry farmers.

The minister also said hat through the ALEX portal, in 2022, produce worth over $330 million were sold, benefiting 1,733 farmers and 671 buyers registered on the platform.

“This is a testament to the power of technology and the importance of collaboration in driving growth and development,” Bartlett said, adding that ALEX has been a game-changer for the local agricultural community.

He noted that ALEX falls under the Ministry’s Tourism Linkages Network, a division of the Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF), through which the Government has been able to expand its reach to more Jamaicans across myriad industries which supply and contribute positively to the growth of the tourism sector.

“The link between agriculture and tourism is a strong one, and it is our responsibility as a government to foster and develop this link for the benefit of all,” he said.

Bartlett added that the ministry, through its linkages framework, has also developed the Agricultural Food Safety Manual along with key partners and conducted sensitisation sessions with over 400 farmers across the island.

“The objective of this project was to provide tourism agricultural suppliers with information on food safety standards while enhancing their capacity to provide safe service delivery to tourism entities,” he said.

In the meantime, Bartlett noted that after assessing a number of farms in St James, St Elizabeth, St Ann, and Trelawny, the Tourism Linkages Network, through the Agriculture Technical Working Group, identified that water shortages, associated with the high cost of trucking water, as well as extended drought periods across farming communities that supply the tourism and hospitality sector, are the main impediments preventing community farmers from fully capitalising on the linkages between the agricultural sector and the tourism and hospitality sector.

“To address this, we donated water tanks to farmers in these areas. In the first phase, 50 tanks were donated to farmers in St Elizabeth and 20 to farmers in St James.

“In the second phase, 200 tanks were donated to farmers in St Ann and Trelawny. This is aimed at assisting with irrigation challenges in the drought season and will also boost their ability to adequately supply the sector. I am happy to announce that we will be continuing this initiative in 2023 so that more small farmers can get their fair share of the tourism pie,” Bartlett said.