Agriculture Ministry taking stock of crops that will be in short supply

By Kimone Witter   

 

It's expected that by the end of this week, the Ministry of Agriculture will have a complete inventory of the crops that will have a dip in supply in the coming months.

 

Agriculture Minister Floyd Green said it is already known that there will be a shortage of cabbage, lettuce, tomatoes and carrots.

 

Minister Green said the next step will be to fill the gaps through replanting and imports. 

 

"So we will look at where we are coming to the end of this week in relation to the supply and the fall off in supply. Again, a number of our supply markets for these items are near shore, so we don't have to worry about time frame to get here. Clearly, it has to be managed in a way that will ensure that, yes, we look at price, but we don't flood the market in such a way that it disincentivizes our farmers from getting back up and running. So we will have to do that balance," he acknowledged. 

 

Mr. Green said the good news is that some crops, like tomatoes, can be produced and be ready for market within a short period. 

 

"A number of these crops are what in agriculture we call cash crops. They're quick crops. They're crops that if you put the farmers in a position to get back out in the field, then they can work very hard to have us back up and running in weeks - six, eight, 12 weeks."

 

He was speaking at Wednesday's post Cabinet media briefing. 

 

Standby generators needed 

 

In the meantime, Minister Green said Hurricane Beryl has highlighted the need for standby generators for irrigation systems.

 

He said all systems lost power during the hurricane.

 

"Thankfully, now, we're at 70 per cent. A number of our systems including in parts of Clarendon, like Ebony Park, Clarendon Park, those systems have come back up. In Manchester, that Duff House/New Forest system has come back up. But we still have areas with no system operational. And what we have to be doing now, as we're doing in St. Elizabeth today, and we started since Monday, is installing generators so that we can get those systems back up and running," he disclosed. 

 

Mr. Green said the storm has also highlighted the importance of having facilities to safely store agricultural equipment.