KINGSTON, Jamaica — Cabinet has given approval for ground to be broken in a few months for the US$150-million Pedro Plains Irrigation Scheme.

Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining Floyd Green made the disclosure at the Jamaica Broilers Group Agri-Vision Forum on Tuesday.

When completed, the facility will take water from the Black River to irrigate more than 3,000 hectares of already highly productive lands across south St Elizabeth.

Green also informed that the Government has invested $10 billion over the last six years to put in new irrigation networks in the Southern Plains [Agricultural Development Project] including Amity Hall in St Catherine and Parnassus in Clarendon, as well as in Essex Valley, which is parts of Manchester and south St Elizabeth, to provide 300 hectares of irrigated land to farmers.

Meanwhile, Green pointed to plans to establish cold storage facilities across the island to extend the quality, nutritional value and shelf life of produce.

“We have to fix some of the fundamental challenges in agriculture— especially in times of oversupply. The only way to truly fix that is to be able to have storage mechanisms that will extend the shelf life of those products,” Green said.

He said the Government has already broken ground on a $123-million storage facility in Kirkvine, Manchester which will assist vegetable farmers.

The facility is slated to be completed in six months.

Green added that the ministry is also working on retrofitting the storage facility in Coleyville, Manchester, which was established years ago, with renewable energy.

Additionally, modular cold storage facilities made from small containers powered by solar renewable energy will be placed in high-production zones.

— JIS