Cedric Johnson
Westmoreland
DESPITE THE adverse weather factor, the parish of Westmoreland was still one of the leading producers of domestic food crops in the island last year. Westmoreland's agricultural output for the year was only bettered by St. Elizabeth, Trelawny and Manchester.
This information was relayed to farmers at the annual meeting of the Jamaica Agricultural Society, Westmoreland branch, in Savanna-la-Mar last week, by the parish manager of the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA), Alva Clarke.
"For the year, we established some 2,995 hectares of agricultural crops while reaping 3,500 hectares. Our contribution to domestic agricultural production was 11 per cent, which made us one of the major contributors to domestic agriculture," said Mr. Clarke.
To assist them in their quest for maximum production, the Westmoreland farmers received Government's help in the form of inputs and technical training. Some 500 of them received fertilisers, chicks and seeds; some also benefited in the area of land preparation, he disclosed.
"In keeping with our mandate to increase agricultural production, we have been using training as our main vehicle. We have conducted 62 training days with 800 farmers and a larger number of farmers have been receiving information that will assist them," said the RADA parish manager who exhorted farmers to make better use of training opportunities since he said it won't be farming in the usual way.
