Ganja Growers Encouraged To Participate In Alternative Development Programme

Minister of State in the Ministry of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries, Hon Floyd Green (2nd right) along with Community Development Officer, SDC, Jennifer Mullings (right) and members of Mountainside, St. Elizabeth listen attentively to the presentation being made on the Alternative Development Programme. The sensitization session organized by the Ministry in collaboration with the Social Development Commission and the Cannabis Licensing Authority was held at the Mountainside Primary, St. Elizabeth on Friday, February 20, 2020.

Minister of State in the Ministry of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries, Hon Floyd Green, is encouraging ganja growers to get involved in the Government’s Alternative Development Programme.
He noted that emphasis has been placed on increasing the number of community groups of traditional growers to participate in the programme.
The programme aims to prevent and eliminate the illicit cultivation of ganja and channel the process through legal streams.
The 1998 Action Plan, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly, provides for the inclusion of such a programme through specifically designed rural development measures consistent with sustained national economic growth.
Minister Green was addressing members of the Mountainside community in St. Elizabeth at an Alternative Development Programme sensitization session held at the Mountainside Primary School on Friday, February 21, 2020.
“What we want to do as a Government is to engage more community groups of traditional growers and provide the technical support for them to transition into the medicinal marijuana industry. We, at the Ministry of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries, want to get more of you on board and to get you to be a part of the medicinal marijuana industry. The industry is growing and, the reality is, as it grows more of our farmers are transitioning from the illegal industry into the legal industry,” Mr. Green said.

“We already have a group from St. Ann that has approached us and a group from Kingston, also a group from Slype in St. Elizabeth,” he added.
Mr. Green also mentioned that a cannabis pilot project has started in Accompong, St. Elizabeth.
The State Minister noted that a lot of lessons have been learnt from the pilot in Accompany and these lessons are being used to develop new guidelines for the programme.
The Alternative Development Programme is being implemented as a strategy to transition traditional cannabis farmers from an illicit framework into the regulated environment as a means of promoting sustainable economic development and poverty eradication.
It is also aimed at providing access to quality-controlled cannabis for medicinal purposes, in keeping with government policy.
The sensitization session was conducted by the Ministry of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries in collaboration with the Cannabis Licensing Authority and the Social Development Commission.
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