Six hundred young Jamaican farmers and fishers across five parishes will benefit from support to bolster their enterprises and combat climate change under the pilot ‘Strengthening the Adaptive Capacity of Farmers and Fisherfolk in Jamaica’ project.
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The initiative, which is being undertaken through a multi-million-dollar grant from Global Affairs Canada and the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), United Kingdom, was launched in the central parish of Clarendon.
It is a key activity under the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), Enabling Gender-Responsive Disaster Recovery, Climate and Environmental Resilience in the Caribbean (EnGenDER) Project, and will be implemented with support from the Jamaica 4-H Clubs.
The project is targeted at male and female youth farmers and fisherfolk in select communities in the parish of Clarendon, Westmoreland, Manchester, St. Elizabeth, and St. Thomas.
Over a six-month period, participants will receive training in business management and financial literacy, as well as business inputs to start and strengthen their farming, fisheries, and agro-processing enterprises.
This project, which employs a gender-sensitive model, also seeks to strengthen equity and access of the beneficiaries to climate-resilient resources, thereby boosting their adaptive capacity.
It is intended that the undertaking will contribute to national efforts to reduce youth unemployment and engage more young people in agriculture.
State Minister in the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Franklin Witter, in his address at the launch, noted that under the project, 175 youth will be trained and certified in crop and livestock production, fisheries, and value-added agriculture.
In addition, venture inputs, technical and coaching support will be provided to 110 youth toward the development of agriculture-based enterprises. ■
A trailing cold front in connection with a low pressure system currently moving east across the Great Lakes toward New England will bring a chance of rain into the eastern U.S. on this first day of November following an exceptionally dry October for this part of the country.