St Thomas Dairy Cooperative's Ludlow Mathison (right) shaking hands with Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining Floyd Green during a symbolic dairy milking machine handover at Knockalva Polytechnic College in Hanover recently. Looking on is CEO of Jamaica Dairy Development Board (JDDB) Devon Sayers .(Photos: Anthony Lewis)
Knockalva College to play big role in dairy industry push, says Green
RAMBLE, Hanover — Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining Floyd Green said efforts will be made to bolster the recently launched Equipment Lease Programme, which forms part of the ongoing Dairy Livestock Innovation and Nutrition Programme (DLINK), through a maintenance programme.
According to Green, Knockalva Polytechnic College will play a vital role in the initiative to improve the island’s diary industry as the institution will be training students to maintain the equipment.
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“If we’re going to have a sustainable dairy industry then we have to continue to focus on our educational institutions. It doesn’t make sense we’re providing equipment for farmers and then when those farmers leave there’s nobody to take over that mantle. We have to ensure that our educational institutions have training programmes so that we have our young people who can service and fix these new equipment,” stated Green.
He was addressing the recent launch of the programme, which took place at the college in Hanover.
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Under the programme, farmers who are unable to gather the cash needed to start or retool their dairy business will be provided with equipment on preferential lease terms.
To date, the Government has purchased 15 mobile milking machines, 11 milk cooling tanks, and a harvester valued at more than $20 million.
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Green, in pointing to the importance of having programmes in place to train individuals to maintain these machines, said he is happy Knockalva Polytechnic College has indicated that it wants to focus on training agricultural engineers in this area.
Green said he is of the view that this is an area that must be embarked on immediately.”
“I believe that is definitely a deficiency that [Jamaica] has, and while we are doing some small programmes around tractor operations we definitely need more people who can fix our equipment when they go bad. I’m going to say to their development board that, as a part of what we’re doing here, let’s just start training in some of those areas so that we can have the technology centre where we can say to our farmers, ‘We can also provide you with the maintenance [and] support that you need’ — and we can send these students from Knockalva out to fix these equipment and to make a good return on their education,” stated Green.
He pointed out that a lot of work has been done at Knockalva over the last two years, including the planting of 10 acres of grass.
“If we’re going to have a robust dairy sector we have to have the forage that we need — not just in times of rain but especially in times of drought,” argued Green.
The minister said the growing of grass is now big business within the agriculture sector.
“If you know how much people are paying for hay nowadays you would be surprised. One of the things that people may have missed is that last year we went to Parliament and we changed the Agricultural Produce Act to make grass an agricultural crop. What it now means is that we can provide direct support to people who want to go into business of planting grass,” added Green as he suggested that students should explore that opportunity.
“You may not know, but if you were to ask me what are the things to look at now in terms of a crop that can give you good returns on your investment, grass is the answer,” said Green.
“I will tell you why: We are pushing dairy. We are pushing small ruminants and our goats; we’re increasing the population significantly. Over 1,000 goats were brought in last year for breeding purposes. All of those animals have to eat, and the truth is if they have high-quality forages — grass — that is what they will turn to,” he added.
Green said his ministry is currently supporting Knockalva in this area.
“We’ve already done 10 acres of grass. We provided two mobile milking machines to the institution and [a] 170-gallon cooling tank, as you would have heard, but it is about $250,000 to enhance the genetic stock and to increase the productivity of the local herds here,” stated the minister.
“We have also been focused on renovating the milking parlour; we’re going to be spending $900,000 to renovate the milking parlour right here at Knockalva. I know the principal is very happy about that and we’ve provided some support in terms of feed, barbed wire, drums of molasses, and an 800-gallon water tank,” Green added.
He said students are being trained to use the equipment.
“Knockalva gets a whole heap of support from the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries but, most importantly of all of those things, a critical part of our support to Knockalva thus far is the training of 15 students to use our mobile milking machines because they will become the next generation of our dairy sector. We’re going to continue to focus our energies on driving our dairy industry, and we’re going to continue to focus our energies on helping Knockalva be that premier agricultural institution in Jamaica again,” he promised.
Principal of Knockalva Polytechnic College Natalie Thompson said the institution is eager to be a part of the transformation journey on which the agriculture ministry is currently embarked.
