From left: Managing director of the Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF), Omar Sweeney looking on as Peter Thompson, Rural Agricultural Development Authority’s (RADA’s) chief executive officer, presents farmer Keisha Vassel with a certificate of completion, at the graduation ceremony at the Church of God of Prophecy on Old Harbour Road in St Catherine on Wednesday

FOUR hundred farmers from St Elizabeth, Manchester, and St Ann, who are now better equipped to reap the maximum benefits from their crops, are grateful after the completion of a training programme put on by the Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF) and Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA) in the ninth cycle of the Basic Needs Trust Fund Programme (BNTF).

The farmers who were in attendance at their graduation ceremony, held in Old Harbour St Catherine on Wednesday, shared with Jamaica Observer that they were grateful for the experience and they are eager to employ their new skills.

Nacoy Holness, a young farmer in St Elizabeth said: “What we have learnt from the training provided by JSIF and RADA includes pest control, spray calibration, plant nutrition, business management, PH testing in the different water levels, and the proportionate mixture of spray to the amount of water available.”

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/agriculture/farmers-grateful-for-jsif-and-rada-initiative_182718