Caribbean project to benefit small farmers

Small-scale farmers in the Caribbean, including Jamaica, are to benefit from a project geared at building marketing linkages across the region.

The project, dubbed 'Sustainable, profitable value chain and market linkages in the Caribbean', is being spearheaded by Sandals Foundation, Caribbean Farmers Network Inc (CaFAN) and the Technical Centre for Agriculture and Rural Cooperation (TCA).

More than 2,200 small farmers in Jamaica, Antigua, Barbados, Grenada, St Lucia, and St Vincent are being targeted under the programme, according to president of the Jamaica Agricultural Society, Senator Norman Grant, who was speaking at the launch recently at Sandals Ochi Beach Resort in Ocho Rios, St Ann.

Each country will be required to select key crops from a list of 26 that they have a strategic advantage in producing. This will create better coordination, management and monitoring among the different countries, he explained.

Among the list of crops are avocado, breadfruit, cabbage, carrot, citrus, cherry tomato, cucumber, ginger, hot pepper, lettuce, mango, onion, pineapple, plantain, pumpkin, sweet pepper, and sweet potato.

Grant said the success of the project could see the region significantly reducing its US$5-billion food-import bill.

Source: jamaica-gleaner.com