Ministry of Information, Culture, Youth & Sports

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The Jamaica 4-H Clubs is to launch its national school garden programme on Labour Day (May 23), as part of the Government's thrust to secure the country's food supply.

Executive Director of the 4-H Clubs, Lenworth Fulton told JIS News that the organization would kick start its programme on Labour Day, by assisting with the construction of vegetable gardens and nurseries at the Buff Bay High and Tranquility Primary schools in Portland, which are this year's national projects.

He said that the programme was aimed at "putting in a garden at every single school in Jamaica," as a means of introducing students to agriculture. He pointed out that it would also "aid in transferring modern technology in agriculture to students and let them understand that we can grow what we eat and eat what we grow."

The project is to be fully implemented in September, the start of the next school year, when 322 of the 970 schools will have their gardens up and running.

He noted that a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) is to be signed between the 4-H Clubs and the Ministry of Education, as a means of "getting all the stakeholders involved and to see how well the gardens can work for food security."

"We are looking at how we can develop crops such as cassava, sweet potato and other root tubers in a form to use in our school feeding programme," the Executive Director informed.

Another initiative which is to start on Labour Day is the distribution of 200,000 packets of seeds to high school students from Grades eight to 11.

The Executive Director informed that the 4-H Clubs would be working closely with the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA) and the Jamaica Agricultural Society (JAS) in implementing the programme.

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