500 acres of former sugar lands to be put into castor bean production

The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining remains committed to the repurposing of former sugar lands into other agricultural ventures and have such recently allocated, through the Sugar Company of Jamaica Holding Limited (SCJ), 500 acres of such lands for castor bean production.

Portfolio Minister, the Hon. Floyd Green, said during a press briefing at the Ministry’s Hope Complex office on January 31, that this represents one of the many exciting initiatives that will come from the reallocation activities.

“We do expect to launch this project this year. It is a private investment, but we are looking forward to transitioning from sugar in some areas into new areas that are in significant demand,” he said.

Minister Green outlined that there are over 65,000 acres of former sugar lands in possession of the SCJ Holdings that will be put into a wide variety of agricultural activities, ranging from cash crops to livestock rearing.

“Over the course of last year an additional 2500 acres would have been put from the sugar company, lands that used to be in sugar and are now in various

dispensations. So, we had 17 cash crop allocations amounting to about 614 acres. We had animal rearing another 7.5 acres and 25 acres during the last year would have gone into orchard,” Green outlined.

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