Shaw breaks ground for new RADA Hanover office building

Minister of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries, Hon Audley Shaw, broke ground for construction of a $109-million single storey building to house the Rural Agricultural Development Authority’s (RADA) Hanover Parish Office in Haughton Court on January 29, 2020.
The new facility will replace the old dilapidated building, which was demolished in 2017, and will enable improved operations for staff, and an extension of the services offered to the over 7,400 farmers in the parish.
The second-largest producer of turmeric, a crop with increasing demand both locally and internationally, Hanover is also known for its ginger and pimento, producing some 10.5% of the 644.9 tonnes produced islandwide in 2018.
Noting that Hanover was in the heart of the tourism industry, Minister Shaw said that not enough of what was produced was being utilised in the hotels but stated that the new marketing platform, ALEX, that was launched in collaboration with the Tourism Linkages Network was a start in getting produce marketed to the tourism industry.
The agriculture minister stated that the sector was in transition and with the decline in the sugar industry Government would not be operating sugar factories but would provide support to the sector.
Minister Shaw emphasised that what was needed was industrial diversification in the sector with an increased cultivation of orchard crops such as mangoes, June plum and soursop.
Referring to the recently established medicinal hemp farm in Long Pond, as well as the soon-to-be-established 2,000 acre bamboo factory in Trelawny, Minister Shaw said that the transformation of the sector had begun.
He encouraged the farmers to increase their production as there was a need to produce local raw materials to support the upcoming National Home-grown School-Feeding Programme to be implemented in partnership with the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations.