Ministry of Agriculture

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Volunteers from the National Youth Service (NYS) turned out in their numbers on May 15 at AgroGrace on Spanish Town Road to assist in sorting more than 190,000 packets of seeds that will be delivered to schools across the island in time for Labour Day (May 23). Some 400 schools will receive the packets of seeds which are to be used to establish school gardens and backyard gardens at the homes of the students. The vegetable seeds, including cucumber, string bean and carrot, are being made available through the Ministry of Agriculture and AgroGrace.

As the world food prices rise, Jamaicans are being encouraged to plant vegetable crops for their Labour Day project on May 23.

To use the day as a springboard for the drive, the Government will be distributing about 200,000 packets of vegetable seeds to schools islandwide for planting. Students will also be provided with seeds to establish back yard gardens at home.

According to acting Executive Director of the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA), Al Powell, the Ministry of Agriculture is targeting schools islandwide, in an effort to ensure sustainable school gardens.

"We are distributing 200,000 packets of vegetable seeds to schools located in all 14 parishes and we do have a breakdown for the number of schools in each parish. The breakdown are for St. Ann, 23; St. Mary, 13; St. Thomas, 10; Portland, 13; Clarendon, 36; Manchester, 26; St. Catherine, 33; Kingston and St. Andrew, 57; Hanover, 13; Westmoreland, 16; St. James 22; and St. Elizabeth, 19," Mr. Powell tells JIS News in an interview.

This year's Labour Day activities will be undertaken in keeping with the theme: 'Eat What We Grow.Grow What We Eat'.

"The government is proactive in terms of ensuring that we recognize the whole food safety importance and this Labour Day, instead of marking roads or painting schools, we are encouraging individuals to plant (a vegetable seed or maybe a fruit tree). And this is taking place within the context of eating what we grow and growing what we eat," he says.

The Executive Director notes that many benefits can be derived from the project, which is encouraging young persons to undertake agriculture from an early age as a medium through which they will save and be better able to provide for their families, as they are ensuring that their foods are secured by cultivating what they eat.

"We are expecting that students who plant seeds will stop the family from going to the supermarket or vegetable market to purchase these crops which they themselves grow. They will also get involved in growing what they like and learning the importance of growing something that they do not have to beg or buy at the shop," Mr. Powell points out.

In addition, when children at this level are taught the importance of agriculture, "we are hoping that we will get a lot of people who will want to continue planting school gardens," he says.

"We are also encouraging people, that once you get involved in this (planting of vegetable seeds), they will see the benefits, the excitement, the savings and will want to repeat this sort of thing," he adds.

The Executive Director informs JIS News that RADA will be driving the process to ensure that the seeds are sorted out and distributed to the schools accordingly.

Moreover, RADA officers will check the schools in their areas in the parishes to ensure that the project has been undertaken and is being developed. In addition, the Education Officer in the Ministry of Education is an agriculturist, "so we are hoping that he will assist as the project develops."

With the development of each garden, financial costs to the schools will be reduced, as the schools will be better able to sustain themselves from the crops that they grow, and the additional savings can be used otherwise.

Children will also feel a sense of satisfaction when they are able to consume what they have cultivated.

"The packets of seeds are being sorted out and during the course of next week, will be delivered to the schools before Labour Day," Mr. Powell tells JIS News.

The seeds to be distributed include: carrot, string bean, cucumber, sweet pepper, tomato and okra.

"Government has recognized the importance of agriculture as a contributor to national development and currently agriculture contributes about 6 per cent to the gross domestic product (GDP). The government sees that if you pay a lot more attention to agriculture, you obviously will get a greater contribution to GDP," he says.

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