Self sufficient in Irish potato production by 2015

Reaping of Irish potato, planted under a project involving the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA, and the Christiana Potato Growers, is now taking place at locations across the island.

The crop was cultivated on nine demonstration plots in Carlton, St. James; Kinloss, Trelawny; Woodland, St. Elizabeth; Kentucky, Westmoreland; Cascade, St. Ann; Ketish, St. Catherine; Sherwood Forrest, Portland; Top Mountain, St. Andrew; and Albion Mountain, St. Thomas.

The project is in keeping with the national objective to make Jamaica self sufficient in Irish potato production by 2015.

Parish Marketing Officer at RADA, St. James, Saleem Clarke, told JIS News that the move to achieve self-sufficiency in Irish potato production will have a two-fold effect in terms of improving the earnings of farmers, and reducing expenditure on imports.

He said farmers are only producing 35 per cent of the Irish potatoes being consumed locally, and with increased production, the import bill for the produce can be cut by up to 50 per cent in the short-term.