Floyd Green, Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining is saying that Jamaica is on track to record a decline in domestic crop production for the first half of the year.
Speaking at the annual Agricultural, Industrial and Food Show hosted by the Kingston and St. Andrew Association of Branch Societies of the Jamaica Agriculture Society (JAS), Green delivered the keynote address and alerted to the decline as a direct result of the prolonged drought which started last year.
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He has thus directed Permanent Secretary Dermon Spence to call an urgent meeting of all of the heads of agencies to discuss strategies to put more resources into drought mitigation.
He said Jamaica recorded a 21 percent decline in the annual mean average rainfall last October leading up to 72 percent less rainfall in February.
He disclosed, “The drought is having a tremendous impact on our farmers, and unfortunately, despite the best efforts of the Ministry of Agriculture, it is clear to see that the first quarter of this year will record a decline in production for agriculture. In fact, based on the figures that I have already started to peruse, we will see, at minimum, a nine percent decline in production in the first quarter of 2023, and I do expect that in the second quarter, we will see further declines in relation to agricultural production, largely because of the drought.”
The Minister said there is a lot of work to do.
