Jamaica is set to surpass its national onion production targets this year thanks to the intervention of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Mining’s National Onion Programme (Production Incentive Programme).
The Ministry has targeted planting 400 hectares of onions for the crop season and is already at 202 hectares planted, with additional planting expected to take place.
Portfolio Minister, Hon. Floyd Green, said that the Ministry has been working to boost overall productivity concerning onion production in Jamaica.
“We want to ensure that people are getting the yield out of the hectares. We are seeing, for the most part, farmers are meeting the productivity targets, and we are even seeing some farmers exceed productivity targets,” Green explained after concluding a series of farm tours in the onion production belt of St. Thomas (Heartease and Llandewey (Abby)).
The agriculture minister is projecting that 2025 will be “the biggest production year” for onions.
“We have already, for the month of February, exceeded the target that we were looking at in terms of how much onions we have coming out, so we expect that to keep going throughout the season,” he shared, crediting the support provided by the Ministry and its agencies such as the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA).
Minister Green has indicated that the Ministry intends to further encourage production by providing support through infrastructure development and the infusion of technology.
“Having come to this area (Abby St. Thomas), I am going to send our RADA engineering team to see how we can work with the farmers in the area to ensure that they have access [to their farms] even when the river is in spate. Clearly, they have an access challenge. It is ok when the river is not doing so badly but they need at least a bridge that they can [use to] come into this area and tend to their crops.”
In respect to technology, he outlined that the Ministry is working to ensure that farmers are able to access small tools and machinery that will make agricultural tasks, such as land preparation, easier.
“We have seen a lot of female farmers in this belt, and we want to encourage our female farmers and ensure that we see more of them getting involved and that’s why we have to infuse more technology in what we do.”
“We are going to be using the technology to be more efficient, more productive and ultimately for the farmers to make more money,” he added.
Minister Green has also shared that farmers in St. Thomas are venturing into other forms of production.
“We are seeing a significant rise in sweet corn production which is very good and has a very good market,” he pointed out.
The National Onion Programme (Production Incentive Programme) is a comprehensive programme that supports farmers throughout the entire production process. As such, it not only assists with production but also provides assistance with post-harvesting and storage.
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