Parish manager for St. Catherine, Andrew Carty.
RASBERT TURNER, Gleaner Writer
The Rural Agricultural Development Agency (RADA) is embarking on a three-year ackee replanting project to plant 7,000 seedlings.
According to parish manager for St. Catherine, Andrew Carty, this idea has come about due to several natural disasters which have triggered the near-annihilation of the fruit. He said that the targeted areas in St. Catherine are in Glengoffe and upper St. Catherine.
Mr. Carty said that farmers will have to plant the product on a structured orchard and that they will be given assistance such as fertiliser, herbicides and slug baits. He said that the slug bait is necessary as in the early stage, the plants are susceptible to being eaten by slugs. He said that farmers have been screened for the projects and to date they have identified eight farmers and two orchards. According to Mr. Catty, during the planting the farmers will be given cash incentives of $7,500 for the first year, depending on how well the farm adheres to the standard procedure.
The parish manager also added that using the traditional way of planting ackee, research has shown that ackee can be matured within 18 months, instead of the standard three-year expectation. "We at RADA have been graphing the mature ackee trees and find that they can be productive within 18 months." He said that over the three-year programme the 7,000 seedlings planted are expected to cover 42 acres.
Mr. Carty told Farmers Weekly that ackee production is a very lucrative type of farming as there is a great export market for the product.
