J’cans urged to plant more ackee

Farmers are being encouraged to plant more fruit trees, particularly ackee and breadfruit, to meet local and overseas demand.

Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining, Floyd Green, in making the call said "ackee is our second largest export" and there is a need for Jamaica to replenish crops lost during Hurricane Melissa.

"We're seeing tremendous demand for it and coming from Hurricane Melissa, we would have lost a lot of ackee trees, especially in the west. As such, we are saying to all the farmers, especially in the east, in hills like St Andrew, to go into ackee and breadfruit production," he said.

The minister, who was speaking during the opening of the Lime Edge Farm Road in Mount Friendship, St Andrew, last Wednesday, also encouraged farmers to go into the cultivation of avocado.

He noted that 1,500 trees from the Dominican Republic are being introduced locally, through partnership with international organisation Trees That Feed Foundation. They are being distributed to farmers islandwide.

"One of the pluses of these avocados is that they bear right around the year, and we know there's a tremendous demand so, what you will see over the next year is a massive focus from the Ministry of Agriculture on fruit trees and our fruit-tree programme," he said.