Director of Agriculture Mr. Gregory Bailey has disclosed that a major partnership between the private sector, the Ministry of Agriculture and farmers will result in providing adequate water supply for farmers.
Heavy duty equipment, including the Ministry of Agriculture’s Long Boom Excavator are working on widening the capacity of the Dam in the area of Burkes Farming settlement, with a view to increase the water way to twice or more its volume.
The Director of Agriculture stressed the importance of adequate water supply to help boost food security.
“As we always say, there is no food security without water security and we are now entering the heart of the dry season, so we are trying to not only get the lands prepared as I would have mentioned in previous interviews, but also to ensure that we have water to produce on the lands, so this is one example of one of these initiatives that is seeking to match water to acreage which should equal food with farmers input.”
In this project, the government has agreed to assist the farmers by providing the long boom excavator and fuel to service all the machines operating at the site for the life of the project.
The owners of these machinery have also prepared to assist by giving a rebate on their prices.
Bailey noted that it is heartening to see this timely collaboration and he believes that it will encourage the farmers to take even more care of the Dam, as a major problem that exists with a lot of the dams that have been established, is maintenance.
Bailey further announced that there are plans to carry out a similar project in Bendals on an even bigger scale.
The Dam is expected to be about a thousand feet long when all the work is completed.
The Dam expansion project which started at the beginning of this week should be completed in about 14 days.
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