FLAGAMAN, St Elizabeth — Although a politician and respected hotelier are optimistic about a planned $200-million irrigation system to reach arable lands here, farmers are sceptical that the project will come to fruition in the near future.

The Pedro Plain Irrigation Scheme, announced by Prime Minister Andrew Holness as a national strategic project, is designed to take water from the Black River to irrigate the plains and farmlands in the parish.

“The plains of St Elizabeth are among the most fertile in the country. Farmers, despite not having access to irrigation, have proven to be the best in the world in using very low water supply to grow very productive crops,” said Holness in his recent 2023/2024 Budget Debate presentation.

Farmers in Flagaman, Greenfield, Southfield, and Top Hill are slated to benefit from the project.

Karim Reynolds, a farmer in Flagaman, told the Jamaica Observer that like other farmers, he is struggling to water his crops.

“Every little thing I plant. A one little old Isuzu van I drive and it I have to use to carry water. All two months will pass and we don’t get any water,” he said.

“They are saying they are going to send irrigation from Black River. At first they did said they would take it from Great Bay, but Black River would be too far,” said a doubtful Reynolds.

“I don’t think I am going to live to see that irrigation come to Flagaman,” he added.

Winston Ferguson, a farmer and resident of Flagaman, questioned why nearby wells weren’t being targeted to assist farmers in the community.

“There are about three irrigation wells at Little Park and the water is pumped to Beacon. The hardest place to get water is Flagaman. All two, three months no water. People have to be buying water to wet their ground. We have three wells at Little Park that can flood Jamaica, it is just for them to connect it to make [water] come up here,” he said.

Ferguson expressed his frustration with the high cost for trucked water.

“All $12,000 for one truckload and one load can’t wet the ground,” he said.

However, Member of Parliament for St Elizabeth South Western Floyd Green told the Sunday Observer that farmers can be assured that the Government is serious about the irrigation project.

“It is understandable why people would be very sceptical of whether this is literally going to happen, because they have been hearing about it for a long time from the 1970s especially [farmers] in Flagaman who have worked so hard on producing so much,” he said.

“Two things that they can rest assured of. A plan has already been done. Normally when people are speaking about the project they are speaking about it as a pipe dream; however, we are moving towards implementation and it is a national strategic priority. My expectation is that when the cadastral mapping is done we will be able to break ground in relation to the infrastructure work sometime next [calendar] year,” added Green.

Treasure Beach hotelier Jason Henzell said the irrigation system is going to be a transformational project for the farmers of St Elizabeth.

“My understanding is that this plan has been on the books from in the 1970s, and I myself have been involved with several of the stakeholder meetings and the truth of the matter is a lot of our hard-working farmers are living hand to mouth, because for most months of the year they have to buy trucked water and once you have to buy water from the truck, it is highly unlikely that you are going to make a profit out of your crop,” he said.

“This $200-million irrigation plan will be absolutely transformational for the parish of St Elizabeth. I can’t overstate how happy I am about that, it will be one of the greatest things that has ever happened for our parish, it will affect tens of thousands of farmers,” added Henzell.

Green said only 10 per cent of farmlands in St Elizabeth are irrigated with farming honing practices such as mulching.

“St Elizabeth has always had a challenge with water for farming. Nonetheless, our people are natural farmers and have honed skills through generations. They have developed unique practices that they utilise to ensure that the water that they do get is maximised and also that helps in terms of maintaining the crop and keeping the soil moist,” he said.

He added that farmers have come up with ingenious ways of irrigation.

“Over the last decade a lot of farmers have gone into drip irrigation systems where they put a storage tank on the property and they run drip lines to feed [the crops], so they consume less water,” said Green.

“While we are still producing great numbers, we still do not have significant land under production. In other words, we could put a lot more land under production, if we had significant water,” he added.

Green pointed to some success down the years to bring irrigation supply to areas in south St Elizabeth.

“Like Hounslow, parts of Blunters where we have been able to bring them National Irrigation supplies. We have seen much more land go under production,” he said.

He mentioned the Essex Valley Irrigation System in St Elizabeth south-east and south Manchester as an exemplary project.

“We have seen where if you can get [to farmers] low-cost water it reduces their cost of production and be able to better plan based on consistent water supply,” said the former agriculture minister.

He said in 2018 the Ministry of Agriculture with the help of the French Government brought in a team of experts to do a feasibility study of the Pedro Plains Irrigation Scheme.

“… In relation to looking at the surface flow of the Black River and determining if the surface flow was enough to facilitate a take-off to irrigate the plains of St Elizabeth,” he said.

“French consultants met with the farmers throughout the entire south St Elizabeth. They looked at the surface water flow. What they determined at the end of their feasibility study is that the Black River had more than sufficient surface water flow to serve the area with irrigation especially at the peak times and that would be when you would take off the most like in the drought times,” added Green.

He said the use of renewable energy is among plans for the irrigation project.

“Based on the work that was done the Black River could supply consistent irrigation flow for 4,000 hectares of land and that would span everything from Mountainside, Parottee going all the way back through Greenfield all the way through Beacon, Pedro Cross, Flagaman and then it would take you all the way through Southfield and into Top Hill,” said Green.

He said the project will benefit farmers greatly.

“Flagaman is the community with the most registered farmers in Jamaica even though it doesn’t have an irrigated water supply… The feasibility study said at minimum we would see a 30 per cent increase in productivity from the area,”

He reiterated that Cabinet has approved $100 million for cadastral mapping.

“The process of doing the surveys generating the titles [and] ensuring that the easement is on it, so that the pipelines can be run through those parcels of land that you would have identified,” said Green.”The residents would also be getting titles to their lands, because the project touches and concerns their property, so it is another big win for the people who have land that we have earmarked for the project,” he added.

Treasure Beach, an adjoining community-based tourism area to Flagaman will also benefit from water supply upgrades.

“There are parts of the Greater Treasure Beach area like Fort Charles parts of Billie’s Bay that do not have a water supply currently, so what we are doing now is running pipelines from Hopewell to Billie’s Bay and that would take you through to Fort Charles,” said Green.

He said significant development is happening in Treasure Beach.

“… We have a lot of Villas under construction, so again a part of the drive to ensure that we fix the water system is to support the additional investment that we are getting into the area. The investments are in keeping with the sort of tourism that we offer which is low density high income tourism that incorporates the community,” he said.

“What we are really doing is looking at a short, medium, long-term view of a comprehensive rural development plan for St Elizabeth and for various communities throughout St Elizabeth,” added Green.