Glendon Harris, the chairman of the St James branch of the Jamaica Agricultural Society (JAS), believes that if western Jamaica was given the same kind of support as the eastern parishes, it could rescue the island's banana industry.
"Banana is on the up in western Jamaica and with the input of the European Union, the agriculture ministry and the All Island Banana Growers Association, farmers are responding," said Harris.
"Over the years, most of the money was invested in the eastern parishes and on many occasions, they have seen a total wipe out of these investments by natural disasters," continued Harris, who is also a long-standing banana farmer. "But, even though we (in the west) have been affected on some occasions, it has never been more than 70 per cent."
More Than 400 Farmers
St James is one of six traditional banana-growing parishes in Jamaica. The parish has more than 400 banana farmers.
The other traditional banana-growing parishes are St Catherine, St Thomas, St Mary, Portland and Clarendon.
The parishes of St Mary, Portland, and St Thomas once dominated the islandwide production of bananas, with shiploads of the fruit being sent to Europe and North America from Port Antonio. However, bananas dwindled into partial oblivion after natural disasters, over several years, left hundreds of hectares of the crop, valued at millions of dollars, flattened.
In October 2012, the entire island took a severe battering from Hurricane Sandy, which destroyed some 1,500 hectares of bananas, affecting the livelihood of close to 11,000 farmers. Portland and St Mary suffered an average of 90 per cent in losses to banana cultivation, while the western region averaged some 50 per cent - a total dollar value of
more than J$1 billion.
(1 Jamaican dollar= 0.0083 USD)
Source: jamaica-gleaner.com
