KINGSTON, Jamaica – The Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries on Wednesday handed over conditional ownership for water harvesting infrastructure to 12 water user (farming) groups in seven parishes across the island.

These include reservoirs, catchment and storage tanks (both on-farm and central) as well as drip irrigation systems, which were constructed in Clarendon, St Catherine, St Mary, St Thomas, St Ann, Manchester and Trelawny under the second component of the Government of Jamaica’s Adaptation Fund Programme.

Being implemented by the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ) through a grant of approximately US$10 million from the Adaptation Fund, the programme is aimed at strengthening climate resilience of the agricultural sector by improving water and land management, thereby protecting livelihoods and enhancing food security.

The handover of the systems represents the closeout of this phase of the project, with the ministry presenting the groups with a custodian agreement, which transfers responsibility for the management, operation and maintenance of the farming assets to the groups, with an understanding that once the terms and conditions are satisfied ownership will be transferred.

President of the Walkerswood Farming Group, Denyse Perkins, signed the agreement with the ministry and its partners as a symbolic gesture on behalf of all the groups, during a ceremony at the ministry’s Hope Gardens location.

Portfolio Minister, Floyd Green, during his address, hailed the project team for implementing an initiative that positively impacts farmers and their livelihoods.

 “This project goes to the heart of what we need to do in relation to agriculture. We have to ensure that agriculture is climate-resilient, we have to introduce climate-smart practices and not just in relation to policy. We have to take a very practical approach in ensuring that the farmers in and around our communities are doing it in their day-to-day life,” the minister noted.

This, he said, means expanding the island’s irrigation network and ensuring that the farmers have access to water-harvesting technology, so that they can store the commodity for use during periods of drought.

The minister encouraged the groups to ensure that they take good care of the systems, so that it can “transform generations”.

He pledged that the ministry will continue to work with the farmers, noting that he has instructed the Rural Agricultural Development Authority to track the expected increase in production from the groups.