Local farmers get help to ramp up food production
Published:Saturday | July 30, 2022 | 12:08 AMRuddy Mathison/Gleaner Writer
Member of parliament for West Central St Catherine Dr Christopher Tufton has committed to help boost domestic food production by providing well-needed support to some 200 farmers across his constituency.
On Wednesday, he delivered 6,600 pounds of fertiliser, scores of plant suckers, and made a further commitment to give each of the seven farm groups in the constituency $30,000 dollars to assist members to purchase seeds to expand their agricultural holdings.
Tufton told farmers attending a farmers’ meeting organised by him at the Watermount Primary School that getting assistance in the form of fertilisers, seeds and suckers will help to cushion some of the blows they are currently experiencing, and assist with increased production.
“Every day you go to the store to buy, you see a different price tag, unfortunately. So the truth is, if we were able to produce more locally, we would be able to cushion some of the blows,” Tufton said.
He stressed that food security can be guaranteed by local farmers and he intends to assist them, given that the COVID-19 pandemic and the war on Ukraine were contributing to worldwide food shortages.
A former minister of agriculture under the Bruce Golding administration, Tufton said, during that time, he brought back a concept that started under the Michael Manley government to ‘eat what we grow and grow what we eat’.
He notes that it remains relevant now.
“One of the solutions to the challenges that we face now in the country is around food security, meaning we have to grow more and consume more of what we grow.”
After committing $30,000 dollars to each farm group, Tufton urged the leadership of the groups to spend time recruiting more members to strengthen the farm group concept in the months to come.
“Every three months, I want to call you together and provide you with additional support based on what you did with the support before, because what I am aiming to do is to see production go up in these parts,” he told the farmers.
He said there will come a time when continued dependence on imported food will result in the country having no food at all.
President of the Mendez farm group, Karl Farquharson, thanked Tufton for the gesture pointing out that a bag of 100-pound fertiliser now costs $14,000 dollars.
Farquharson said, other than the cost of fertiliser, there is also a challenge with water for irrigation purposes. Another issue highlighted by the farmers was that of the need for adequate storage facilities for their produce after reaping.
Tufton, in responding, disclosed that efforts are being made to tap the water resources from a well in the constituency, to help alleviate the problem. He acknowledged the importance of a storage facility and indicated that he would be looking into this concern with a view to providing some form of solution.