KINGSTON, Jamaica—Councillor Eugene Kelly (People’s National Party, Whitfield Town Division), is encouraging residents to embrace backyard farming as a practical way to improve food security, promote healthier eating habits, and reduce household expenses.

According to Kelly, growing fruits and vegetables at home can help families become more self-sufficient while providing access to more nutritious meals. He urged constituents to make use of available yard space, noting that even small home gardens can make a meaningful contribution to meeting household needs.

“The concern I have is that there has been a decline in proper nutritional intake among our young people and the wider population. Too many of our people are eating meals based mainly on white rice and flour, and we have to move away from that. It’s important that we have these ground provisions that we’re going to be introducing to our residents,” Kelly said.

The councillor was speaking on Wednesday at his annual divisional conference, held at Greenwich Primary School, where the backyard farming initiative was officially launched.

“Today, I am introducing seedlings from the sweet pepper family, and I hope to expand the programme even further. We’re going to introduce sweet potato, tomatoes, and other ground provisions that people need. Because of the difficult financial situation facing not only inner-city communities but Jamaica as a whole, the middle class is shrinking. If the middle class is under pressure, then every other socioeconomic group is also under pressure. This is our way of helping to ensure that, especially our young children, receive the proper nutritional intake they need,” Kelly said.

Kelly also announced plans to work closely with school principals to encourage students to participate in backyard farming, with the aim of fostering healthy eating habits and agricultural skills from an early age.