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<span style="font-weight: bold">Greenhouse waiver gets the green light</span>
Published: Sunday | July 18, 2010
Sweet potato plants in the greenhouse at the Christiana Potato Growers Co-op Association in Christiana, Manchester.Finance Minister Audley Shaw, member of parliament for North East Manchester, addressing a Gleaner Editors' Forum at the offices of the Christiana Potato Growers Co-op Association.1 2 3 >Christopher Serju, Gleaner Writer
IN A move to boost agricultural production, Finance Minister Audley Shaw has announced the Government's willingness to grant waivers to persons who want to set up greenhouses.
"All the greenhouse material that's wanted in Jamaica, I'll sign waivers for it," Shaw told a Gleaner Editors' Forum at the offices of the Christiana Potato Growers Co-operative Association in Christiana, Manchester, on Friday.
"I signed several last week. (I will sign waivers for) any greenhouse material needed to be imported, duty free," Shaw declared.
The Jamaica Greenhouse Growers Association (JGGA) has applauded the Government's decision to reactivate the waiver system that will allow for duty-free importation of construction material for greenhouses.
"The entire greenhouse industry and by extension, the agriculture fraternity, welcomes the decision to reopen the window for these waivers," Burrell Scarlett, technical team leader of the JGGA, told The Sunday Gleaner yesterday.
Shaw's announcement of the availability of waivers on greenhouse products comes in the wake of a recent government decision to suspend the number of wai-vers it grants, pending a review of the system.
The decision was made in light of fraud uncovered in the finance ministry relating to the issuance of waivers.
For many years, government policy has allowed for the duty-free importation of material for approved agricultural projects.
Easy access
To access the waiver, applications are to be submitted to the local Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA) which, after making an assessment of the project, sends the document to the Ministry of Agricul-ture for forwarding to the Ministry of Finance for final approval and issuance of the waiver.
Scarlett noted that even though this policy had been in place for some time, "many farmers probably still don't know about it".
He said the JGGA had not been affected by the suspension since it had no waivers pending, but the issue had been a matter of concern.
The minister's announcement was timely news for the Christiana Potato Growers Co-operative Association, which is soon to receive funding to significantly boost its greenhouse operations in Devon, Manchester, where it operates eight greenhouses ranging from 3,000 to 7,500 square feet in size.
"It is the biggest assistance ever to come through the co-operative: US$100,000 for building more greenhouses to grow plants, US$95,000 to upgrade the lab, and US$40,000 to put in alternative energy sources," Alvin Murray, general manager of the co-operative, told The Sunday Gleaner. The money is to be provided by Common Funds for Commodity, which will do an audit of the co-operatives as a prerequisite for releasing the funds.
Well-needed boost
For Murray, this capital injection will provide a well-needed boost for the 51-year-old organisation, which is moving to not only keep abreast of the times, but to become a pacesetter in agriculture.
"This co-op was established in 1959, March 23 to be exact, and the people who formed it, most of them are dead. Their children would have come along and they would not be interested in agriculture, so what we are really having now is a serious, serious renewal. So our motto now is 'Community Renaissance Through Diversification and Technology', Murray disclosed.
Among its many successes is the provision, on a pilot scale, of seed potatoes; the development of a modified aeroponic system (improvement on hydroponics) to facilitate the seed potato project; the training of young people in appropriate technology; and the development of a variety of products to develop a number of cottage industries. These include corn wine, Irish potato jam, sweet potato wine, Seville orange marmalade, a breadfruit and sweet potato flour mix, Irish potato flour mix, sweet potato pancake mix, breadfruit flour and dasheen flour.
The co-operative owes its ongoing success largely to private-sector support and the dedication of its members and other supporters. "We have gotten a lot of assistance. Not as much from the Ministry of Agriculture, a lot from the private sector development programme and the United States Agency for International Development. Those were the sort of major ones," Murray told The Sunday Gleaner.
..juss gi mi a small interest eena di nex one... 
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