RADA assists Trelawny farmers to transition from sugar cane

Sugar cane farmers in Trelawny are being assisted by the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA) in transitioning to other crops, given the decline of the sugar industry.

Parish agricultural manager, Courtney Taylor, said that the aim is to diversify the crops being produced in the parish and ease its heavy dependence on others such as yam.

“Trelawny is one of the parishes that used to produce a lot of sugar cane and had the most sugar estates in the country. It is also known for yam production; 70 per cent of the yam that is produced in Jamaica is from Trelawny. We're trying to diversify production because we can't just depend on yam alone. We have to show the farmers different crops that they can go into,” Taylor outlined.

Speaking to JIS News at the recent staging of the Denbigh Agricultural, Industrial and Food Show in Clarendon, he explained that RADA has been introducing crops, such as sweet potato, with much success.

“Since the downturn in the sugar industry, we have a lot of available lands, especially in the Northern section of [the parish]. Sweet potato is now on the rise in Trelawny because of our intervention,” he informed.

He pointed out that while RADA is also pushing a variety of other crops to the farmers, such as ginger and vegetables, “sweet potato has great export potential”.

At the same time, the Parish Manager is also encouraging farmers to utilise clean planting materials to ensure that their crops can thrive and remain disease free.

He pointed out that farmers can use tissue culture technology as it is “the way to go” to maximise their production and improve their productivity.

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