Farmers in sections of St Catherine and St Elizabeth are facing what they describe as devastating crop losses due to the ongoing drought affecting the island, a situation former president of the Jamaica Agricultural Society, Lenworth Fulton, says could soon drive up the price of certain produce such as vegetables.

According to Fulton, the current drought is affecting key farming regions such as St Ann, St Thomas, Trelawny, and St Elizabeth.

He warned that crops like cantaloupe, melon, tomatoes, onions, and natural seasonings are already under threat.

“You will have problems with yields, you are going to have less yields. So that means that prices will rise, most likely prices are going to go up because of the scarcity of food caused by the drought,” he said.

Fulton also emphasised that while some water is being trucked into affected areas, it’s mostly for domestic use and not in quantities large enough to sustain agriculture.

Lenworth Fulton

“They may need to go back to the old principle of water harvesting. They could build ponds if they have the soil type that can be compacted. And if there is surface water, they could work through the National Irrigation Commission (NIC) to get water and then they do drip irrigation, which is conserving water,” he said.

In Bushy Park, St Catherine, Donovan Fearon said despite being on a drip irrigation system he hasn’t received any water for over two weeks.

“We get water from NIC and right now, what I have is like burning down. Because I have peanuts, it’s burning down. I have some tomato that was burned down, it’s almost done burned down. I have some corn, it’s almost burned down because no water for the past two weeks,” Fearon said.

“They were trying to get some water to me since Thursday. I have seeds to plant and I fear planting them because of the drought and no water,” he added.

Fearon explained that his farm lies at the end of an irrigation canal, but water is reportedly being diverted by other farmers upstream.

“No water whatsoever goes to my farm. My farm is the last farm on the canal that gives water to farmers in Wilkins Lane, Bushy Park, St Catherine. There is no water going down to my farm,” he said.

“They blocked the canal to send all the water over their farm. I don’t know what NIC is doing about that because I was told years ago not to go and touch any of those things because it caused a fight about four, five years ago,” Fearon said.

Fearon said attempts to seek support from the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA) have proven futile.

Rural Agriculture Development Authority (RADA)

“I called Mr Brown. He’s the RADA officer for the area and he said, yes, he put my name on the list, but nothing, not one pond liner for the St Catherine area that I know of and the drought is bad everywhere in my area except for those farmers who pump water from the river,” he explained.

Now, he’s considering spending $150,000 on pipes and a pump just to pull water from the river—a cost he says is unsustainable.

Meanwhile, Fitzroy Delaney, a farmer at Amity Hall Agro Park in St Catherine, says his crop yields have dropped by more than 50 per cent, despite having drip irrigation in place, due in particular to the heat.

“We are seeing probably even more than 50 per cent reduction in terms of crop yield in this time mainly due to the high temperatures. Some crops are not even performing any at all. For example, like sweet corn, not getting much production out of that. Apple production have been reduced. It’s definitely been challenging in the high temperatures,” he said, adding that the situation is exacerbated by the drought.

Crop irrigation

“We cannot farm without irrigation water. Especially in my area, is probably over two months I don’t see any rain at all. The impact is somewhat reduced by the fact I have the cheap irrigation,” he said.

Similarly, Suzie Reynolds, a vegetable farmer in St Elizabeth, says the ongoing drought is severely affecting crop production.

“Right now we have tomato, thyme, cantaloupe, and scallion. We are preparing to plant melon because it’s dry now, so you try to do less now. We not getting any rain. It circling everybody and we not getting any,” Reynolds said.

“I wouldn’t take on too much now because the crops hard to water. Sometimes you have the plants and you need it to water and can’t get the water and in two, three days when you get the water, the crop already fail,” she said.

Shelly Dunkley, another farmer from St Elizabeth, said the drought has hit hard, severely affecting crop yields.

“Well, the drought is very bad right now, I swear. Water is the biggest problem. I have cucumber and watermelon beetroot. I have to plant over the ground twice. But RADA has helped me with truck water so far,” she said.

Dunkley noted that RADA continues to provide support through trucked water, seeds, and other inputs.