Forty-one farmers in Hartlands, St Catherine, are set to benefit from an $80 million irrigation project aimed at improving agricultural productivity, strengthening climate resilience and providing greater security for farmers who have long struggled with unreliable water access. The Hartlands Irrigation Project, being implemented through the partnership between SCJ Holdings Limited (SCJ) and the National Irrigation Commission (NIC), will provide an irrigation system capable of serving approximately 400 acres of farmland, with the potential to accommodate more farmers in the future. Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining Floyd Green said the investment represents a major step in resolving longstanding challenges faced by Hartlands farmers.
He noted that the farmers had repeatedly raised concerns about the lack of infrastructure, uncertainty over land tenure and the difficulty of sustaining production without dependable water supplies. “This Hartlands issue has been a longstanding issue…It has been a challenging situation but a situation that we committed that we would bring a solution to,” Green said during the launch of the project on Tuesday. According to the minister, one of the key concerns raised by farmers was the need for security of tenure.
“They were tired of being on land, farming that land, and then you would hear that there is another use for that land, and then they would have to relocate from that land…And as such, one of the things that we set about to do was to ensure that in the relocation process that the farmers would get leases for their land that would give them security of tenure,” he said, adding that as part of the transition process, several farmers have already received leases for their plots. He stressed that access to water is essential as farmers face changing climate conditions, including higher temperatures and less predictable rainfall patterns. “And what we now recognise is that there was a time that you could easily wait on rain to fall and that would be enough for you to have your agricultural enterprise.
The reality now is that is way too risky,” the minister said. “And while we can't control things like rain, we have to therefore put in things like irrigation that can get you the water you need to run a robust agricultural enterprise,” he continued. Green said construction for the Hartlands Irrigation Project has a…
Summary from source