There might be a significant reduction in the amount of vegetables and ground provisions for consumption during the Easter season, farmers have warned, due to prevailing drought conditions across the nation.

Farmers of St Elizabeth, Manchester, St Ann and St Mary told The Gleaner that the drought has been ongoing since late January.

John Miller, of south St Elizabeth, said the weather condition has also affected livestock rearing.

Miller said a few cattle and goats in the parish are exhibiting sunken torsos and are close to death, due to a lack of water for their pastures.

Lenworth Fulton, Jamaica 4-H Club's executive director, said yesterday the club's peanut production in Warminster, St Elizabeth, has decreased.

Poor-quality peanuts

In addition, large quantities of its peanuts are of poor quality due to the dry spell.

"We have to be buying water for the fields and especially for the goats," said Fulton.

"It's costly as a tank of water is for $6,000 and this lasts for about three weeks," he added.

Melvin Aris, St Ann's deputy parish agricultural manager, said produce in the northern end of the island has decreased by 50 per cent.

He said the current stock of carrots, tomatoes, cabbage and watermelons in St Ann are few and of inferior quality as a result of the drought.

Aris said farmers are losing as they are planting and not getting a valuable return from the field.

He noted communities hard hit by the drought, such as Grants Mountain, Douglas Castle, Coley, Cave Valley, Cascade and Blackstonedge.

Potatoes decline

"In Blackstonedge, one of the main areas for potatoes, there is a significant decline," said Aris.

Alfred Dunkley, Rural Agriculture Development Authority regional marketing officer for Region Three, charged the Government to establish a mini-drip system within parishes that are severely affected by the dry weather.

"The farmers are trying but, if we don't get rain soon, there will be far less food in the markets," said Dunkley.

The marketing officer noted that St Elizabeth was the bread basket of the country, and if the parish continues to be affected by the drought, it will affect the output of foods for the country.

The trucking of water to drought-affected areas should however commence this week.

Last Tuesday Dr Horace Chang, Minister of Water and Housing, told the House of Representatives that the ministry, in consultation with the Office of the Prime Minister and the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service, had identified funds to begin additional trucking of water to areas in rural Jamaica that are currently suffering from the drought and regarded as in critical need.

shelly-ann.thompson@gleanerjm.com