Ministry of Agriculture & Land

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Farming equipment valued at just over $580,000, has been handed over to 25 farmers from the Sanguinetti community in North Clarendon, who have formed a co-operative called the 'Sanguinetti Action Group'.

The equipment was presented on Monday, September 4, by missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in collaboration with the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA), at a ceremony held at the Spaldings United Church.

Acting Deputy Parish Manager at RADA, Pauline Smith-Stone, told JIS News that the organization would ensure that the farmers make maximum use of the equipment.

"We want to see that the farmers utilize the tools and the equipment and whatever they get, to the best of their ability, in order to maximize their production. We also have a role in assisting them to find markets for their produce and in order to do so, we're going to ensure that they don't overproduce, so we're going to monitor their production process," she said.

Items handed over included, forks, machetes, hoes, rakes, a brush cutter, a mist blower, knapsack sprayers, insecticides, pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers, seed trays, chickens, chicken feed, goats, and vegetable seeds, namely tomato, string bean, sweet pepper, cabbage, cucumber, callaloo, okra, lettuce, turnip, carrot and corn.

Elder Dean Hadlock from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, told JIS News that he read about the farmers in Sanguinetti and how they were affected by the last few hurricanes, so he made contact with RADA.

"I was brought up here to this beautiful valley and introduced to the farmers, and we had our first meeting. We like to work through organizations and RADA happened to be the right organization," he said.

President of the co-operative, Leonard Cohen said he was very happy that the farmers had received some assistance.

"I feel good about what has happened here.and we feel grateful for it and we're going to make use of it," he said.

Mr. Cohen noted that the farmers in the group produced bananas, coffee, yellow yam, red peas, pepper, plantain, ginger, cabbage, carrot and citrus, and sell mainly to the local market.

"I'm very happy with the assistance that this group has given to the farmers. I'm just hoping that those who receive will make good use of the help and will be able to assist others in the community," Richard Azan, Member of Parliament for the area told JIS News.

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