TRELAWNY, Jamaica — Agriculture Minister Floyd Green on Wednesday visited communities in the southern parts of Trelawny where he distributed chemicals to farmers to combat the yam rust disease.

“We will be handing out some chemicals, this is part of a bigger programme that we have in this yam belt to provide the chemical for the farmers to do the spraying,” Green said, adding that plans are afoot to utilise a drone to spray the yam plants with chemicals where it is difficult to source labour.

“Where our farmers are having difficulty is getting people who will do the spraying because labour continues to be a challenge – then we have to use the technology.  So I am going to see how we can get a drone in this area that we can use to spray our yam fields,” Green said.

“We have thousands and thousands of yam right across the length and breadth so we are not only providing the chemicals we are also supplying the spray pans to our farmers to say go out there and take the necessary steps,” he added.

The Agriculture Minister disclosed that as soon as his ministry recognised that there was an outbreak of yam rust, some $9 million was allocated to commence the procurement of chemicals to combat the disease.

“We doing the research but we can’t wait until we decide what is best. Once we see some impact we must provide the farmers with the chemical so that they can go out, start the application and really try to slow the spread of this disease,” he said.