Government Commissions National Agriculture Resiliency Plan
“We need to start producing more of the foods we consume locally, and produce more of them… We must start to treat agriculture as a business and not only as a passion.”
– Prime Minister Andrew Holness
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Prime Minister Andrew Holness has instructed that the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining delivers, by April 2025, a national plan to ensure resilience in the sector.
Speaking at the 70th staging of the Denbigh Agricultural and Industrial Show in Clarendon on Independence Day (August 6), Prime Minister Holness said the plan should include how local production of agricultural goods is increased using Jamaican input and Jamaican resources to increase our processing capabilities for food.
“We need to start producing more of the foods we consume locally and produce more of them. So I have given an instruction to the Minister of Agriculture as part of our food security and resilience to come up by April 2025 with a national plan to build resiliency in agriculture, which would include increasing the local production of food and goods here in Jamaica using Jamaican input and Jamaican resources to increase our processing capabilities for food, to increase our storage capabilities for food, and to increase the financing available to small, medium, and large farmers because we must start to treat agriculture as a business and not only as a passion,” said Prime Minister Holness.
The Prime Minister said funding has been secured for the consultants. However, he declared that the results of the resiliency project must be implemented.
“The Minister has already started. He has secured funding to bring in the consultants. And I don’t want another study that is going to be put on file 13. As we work out the pathways to resiliency, we are going to start implementing it. And that means that whatever we agree to do, we are going to put it in the budget so it goes through the public investment process and gets on the trainline of projects that will not be disturbed. As I have said to you today on our independence day, agriculture is about our independence,” asserted Prime Minister Holness.
In the meantime, the Prime Minister said Jamaica must be resilient against global price shocks and increases. Noting that historically, and particularly immediately after the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, there was a steep rise in inflation that impacted how households are able to survive. Prime Minister Holness said the pandemic and other disasters have impacted the cost of living, particularly food prices.
“An external global event occurred that changed the structure of the economy and caused prices to rise. Not just here in Jamaica, but everywhere in the world. For those of you who travel, you will see this. It has made consumers upset. But the Government has a role to play in this, even though the Government did not cause it. The Government has a role to play, and it is a part of the resiliency agenda,” asserted the Prime Minister.
Prime Minister Holness said that once Jamaica can sustainably feed itself, Jamaicans will feel proud. Prime Minister Holness thanked donors and corporate philanthropists for assisting Jamaicans, particularly following Hurricane Beryl in July.
The Government will spend an additional $1.4 Billion dollars to rebuild the agriculture sector which was devastated by Hurricane Beryl in July.