Farmers across the country can benefit from complimentary training seminars and field appraisals by agronomists through one of Jamaica’s largest manufacturers of fertilisers, Newport Fersan (Jamaica) Limited (NFJ).

The seminars, which are facilitated online on Wednesdays cover several areas, including the production of vegetables, roots, tubers and condiments.

Minister Without Portfolio in the Office of the Prime Minister, Robert Morgan, commended the NFJ for providing the free technical assistance to farmers, which he noted, will boost the agricultural sector.

He was speaking during a tour of the entity’s plant at Wherry Wharf Complex, Newport East, Kingston, on Tuesday (May 30).

Minister Morgan said that farmers across the island, including those within his Clarendon North Central constituency, can benefit from the support to increase crop yields to feed their communities and the country at large.

“So, anything that we can do to help them get the intellectual resources as well as the physical resources to be better able to take care of their families [we will]… because people don’t do farming just because they love it; they do farming to make a living,” he noted.

General Manager of Newport Fersan, Dennis Valdez, pointed out that the entity, over the years, has been working with farmers to increase production.

Farmers are also able to access fertiliser at an affordable cost that is tailored to their needs. During COVID-19, Newport Fersan cut the price of fertiliser by about 19 per cent.

“So, what we’ve been doing before COVID for around eight years…we started our technical programme where we design, based on soil analysis, a specific product that suits the needs of a crop while reducing the cost of the input in most of the ways,” Valdez said.

He noted that farmers have realised “tremendous improvement” in their production from the use of these fertilisers.

Farmers can visit NFJ’s website or social media pages to learn more about its upcoming training sessions.