Two units within the Ministry of Agriculture on Thursday, April 20, undertook an assessment of land clearing activities under the Farm Labour Assistance Programme.

The assessment was done by the Extension and Advisory Services in conjunction with the Research and Development Unit in the Ministry of Agriculture and was undertaken in Agricultural Region 2, District 5 East. These areas included locations such as Montreal, McMillan, Francois and Bahamia.

The land clearing assessments were carried out by Agricultural Officer for Region 2, Donawa Jackson accompanied by Agricultural Extension Officer Alston Lynch of District 5, East, a release from the Ministry of Agriculture states.

Jackson explained that the objectives of the assessment was to ascertain the total amount of land clearing done such as motorized trimming, cutlassing and herbicide/weedicide applications, and to solicit feedback from farmers on work done so far over the last three months. He said a total of 80 farmers have been registered for land clearing services, and so far 51 farmers have benefited significantly. Ten acres of farm lands have so far been cleared to grow crops such as dasheen, eddoes, ginger and carrots.

Farmers who benefited said that they were satisfied and happy with the help they received and also noted that the land clearing services save them money thus allowing them to expand their crop acreages. They also want to see the Farm Labour Assistance Programme continue for some time.

The land clearing initiative under the Farm Labour Assistance Programme was launched on December 16, 2022 by the Ministry of Agriculture at Kenroy Bacchus’ farm located at Bahamia in Region 2, Agricultural District 5 East. Agricultural Region 2 was selected for the first pilot phase of the programme, starting at Richland Park and surrounding farming locations.