THE Government has announced a $200-million allocation to provide increased support for the national Irish potato and onion programme which aims to sustain production and productivity levels and improve the nation’s food security.

Of the sum, $150 million will be provided for Irish potato production, and $50 million for onion cultivation.

Agriculture and Fisheries Minister Pearnel Charles Jr, who made the announcement during a statement in Parliament on Wednesday, said seeds will be available for farmers by mid-October.

He noted that for this Irish potato season, the target is to put 1,500 hectares of land into production, which would represent a 20 per cent increase over last year’s planting season.

“The areas targeted include Guy’s Hill and the Manchester belt along with the upper Westmoreland, Darliston area and Mavis Bank in St Andrew,” he said.

He noted that for the 2021 to 2022 period, more than 70 per cent of national demand for Irish potatoes was satisfied “thanks to our hard-working farmers”, noting that between November 2021 and July 2022 there has been no importation of table Irish potatoes in Jamaica.

Turning to onion production, Charles Jr noted that last year, 40 per cent of the total demand to onion was produced “way surpassing by double the 20 per cent target that was set with 230 hectares planted”.

“For the 2022 to 23 period, we are projecting a 50 per cent increase in production…For this planting season we are targeting expansion of this programme in the traditional growing areas of Clarendon, St Catherine, St Elizabeth, Trelawny and, of course, St Thomas,” he said.

The agriculture minister promised the continued strengthening of relations with the Potato and Onion Producers Association (POPA), the major traders in the marketplace, and encouraged the members to establish satellite farms and to become more integrated with farmers in the production side of the supply chain.

In the meantime, Charles Jr further announced that several pieces of equipment have been acquired to assist small farmers with improving their land preparation operations to increase productivity and production yields.

“We have acquired one amphibious excavator, four pickup trucks, two refrigerated trucks, two drones and two backhoes that have been handed over to the National Irrigation Commission (NIC) and the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA), respectively,” he said, adding that six tractors are scheduled for delivery in October.

Further, in keeping with the Government’s pledge to assist new farmers with land preparation through a special incentive programme valued at $63 million, Charles Jr said the first tranche of $20 million has been issued by the ministry to RADA.

Under this initiative, 5,000 farmers will get the opportunity for assistance with at least one acre of land preparation free of cost.

“I want to call on all members here to urge farmers in your respective constituencies to contact RADA. Dialogue with the RADA representatives so that those farmers who are new entrants particularly can utilise this facility under our Grow Smart, Eat Smart production programme,” Charles Jr urged.

The agriculture minister also announced that this season, the ministry will be conducting a spray trial pilot in the New Pen and Yallahs extension areas using drones as it seeks to promote the use of diverse technologies in agriculture.

“This pilot is expected to establish how we use less and achieve more through greater efficiency in crop spraying,” he said.

Turning to the performance of the sector since the start of the year, Charles reported that in the first quarter, domestic crop production grew by 10.4 per cent to 212,134 tonnes of production, and this growth trajectory continued into the second quarter for April to June.

“Preliminary estimates of production for the second quarter show the sub-sector growing to 219,667 tonnes — an increase of 7.4 per cent over the corresponding quarter of 2021 [which is] an increase over the first quarter of the year by 3.6 per cent,” he said.