
THE MORANT Yallahs Agricultural Development Project (MYADP) seems to have worked wonders for St. Thomas. Farming executives in the parish beamed as they spoke of their achievements over the past few years, at a press conference held in recognition of RADA's 10th anniversary at the St. Thomas Parish office on Thursday.
RADA parish manager Caswell Glover said the success level of the project was high, with a number of critical areas experiencing growth. He said that in Eastern St. Thomas, there had been a 20 per cent increase in cocoa production, with over 40 farms covering 16 hectares receiving assistance. He said that farmers had received training in land husbandry, animal husbandry and integrated pest management.
In addition, farm roads have been fixed and cottage industries which fall under the home economics agenda of RADA, have received attention. There are nine rural groups involved in cottage industries left in the parish today, from a total of 20. "Many have matured and moved on to bigger things and we are very happy that we were able to help," he said.
He was particularly proud of the school garden project, 18 of which exist in the parish. He said that most of the schools have been able to run their operations efficiently and have started repaying their loans.
RADA's plans for the future include the implementation of a macka breadfruit expansion programme, which will see over five hectares of the fruit being planted for export. They will look to undertake a ginger rescue and expansion programme. "The ginger Rhizome rot which is the main disease affecting the plant in central Jamaica has not been found in St. Thomas. We are going to expand production here." There will be a soursop expansion project under which they hope to establish 15 hectares of the exotic fruit.
"The MYADP has been a wonderful programme. We might never see one like this in Jamaica again. It has had tremendous impact on the Morant and Yallahs rivers watershed areas in addition to making land titles available to farmers, which was always a sore point," he said.
Guest speaker at the function, Mr. Harold Spaulding, senior director at RADA, said domestic food crop production over the past 10 years had saved Jamaica an average of $16 billion per year in import substitution, by producing roughly 500,000 tonnes of crops. He said that through the RADA agri information business system which is being implemented, the farming community will soon have a better network in co-ordinating their activities.