JP Farms hosted students from St Mary High School and White Marl Primary School in St Catherine for the relaunch of its integrated farm tour, which saw officials at the ministries of agriculture and education also attendance.

The event fostered engagements between the students Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries Floyd Green and state minister of education and youth Marsha Smith, both of whom endorsed the educational programme and expressed interest in collaborating for more public-private partnerships.

For his part, Minister Green highlighted the students’ active participation, stating, “The children were excellent; you could see they were engaged and enjoyed it. Their questions ranged from the chemical components used in safe and sustainable farming to the methods of planting, showing a keen interest in the subject.” 

The resumption of interactive school tours at JP Farms’ properties in Annotto Bay, St Mary, follow a brief pause starting in 2020 with the onset of COVID-19 and the TR4 banana threat.

During the tours of the farms that span 500 acres, students not only visited the farms but had the opportunity to sample fruits from the farm’s expansive pineapple, banana and plantain fields. Schools across Jamaica can tour JP Farms free of cost.

JP Farms General Manager Mario Figueroa explained that the tours are being offered five days a week and will continue into the summer to accommodate summer school trips and into the new school year.

“We want to introduce students to the process behind seeing their favourite fruits on the supermarket shelves and in their lunch kits. At the same time, we also want to expose them to the wide range of career opportunities in agriculture,” he said.

During the tour, students also had the unique opportunity to engage JP Farms’ board of directors including Charles Johnston, chairman of Jamaica Producers Group; Stephen Facey, chairman of Pan Jamaica Group; and Jeffrey Hall, CEO and deputy chairman of Pan Jamaica Group, who joined the day’s activities.

Minister Green applauded JP Farms for its forward-thinking approach and facilitating interactions between the students gaining first-hand insights from one of Jamaica’s commercial agricultural producers.

“An initiative of this nature is essential and fundamental for the future of agriculture.  I want to commend JP for starting this project, where they will be introducing students to actual life on the farm, and not just the practical side but showing agriculture as a science and the cutting-edge technology used,” he stated.

“JP Farms has been around for such a long time and has evolved in those times (so) they are very well-placed to do a programme like this,” Green added.

Both educators Collin Chen, a teacher of environmental science and agricultural science at St Mary High School, and Farah Brown, a teacher of grades four to five at White Marl Primary in Spanish Town, concurred that students become more engaged in their studies after having out-of-classroom experiences like the tours being offered by JP Farms.

“As an educator, I have found students lose focus after a while on the chalkboard aspect of learning. Through tours of this nature, I find both teachers and students are more equipped with knowledge gained first-hand and it gets them into focus,” Brown remarked.

Jeffrey Hall welcomed the endorsement by the ministers and shared his delight with the students’ interest.

“It was remarkable to witness the enthusiasm of children from as young as nine years old to 17 years old armed with questions. This initiative is a testament to JP Farms’ dedication to innovation and education in agriculture. The team we have is equally enthusiastic and we want to continue setting a precedent for future agricultural education initiatives,” he said.