A signing ceremony for the Production Well Drilling Contracts for New Forest/ Duff House Schemes in Manchester took place on Monday, December 8, 2008 at the Ministry of Agriculture, Hope Gardens.
The principal signatories were Messrs Richard and James Simpson representing Jamaica Wells & Services Limited, the company that was awarded the contracts and Messrs Oliver Nembhard, Chairman and Stanley Rampair, Chief Executive Officer of the National Irrigation Commission Limited.
The Minister of Agriculture, Dr. the Hon. Christopher Tufton, MP witnessed the signing as well as give the keynote address.
The contracts are for the drilling of five (5) production wells in the New Forest/Duff House, Manchester. This event signals the commencement of construction activities under the second phase of the National Irrigation Development Programme (NIDP). This phase consist of the construction of five irrigation systems which will be jointly funded by the Government of Jamaica (GOJ) and the Inter American Development Bank. (IDB). The five proposed projects are New Forest /Duff House, Colbeck, Yallahs, St Dorothy and Essex Valley.
In July Prime Minister Bruce Golding commissioned the Hounslow (Rehab.) Irrigation System into operation. This system along with the Pedro Plains and Seven Rivers were the first phase of projects identified under the NIDP. They were all jointly funded by the Caribbean Development Bank.
The first contract signed will be for the construction of two production wells at a cost of J$35, 536,777.34 in Duff House and Rowes Corner and the second contract will consist of three (3) wells to be constructed in Plumwood, Lane and New Forest, all in Manchester. The value of the second is J$65,063,066.72.
The five wells when constructed will be interconnected by a complex network of pipelines.
Once these wells are constructed, the farmers of the New Forest/Duff House Water Users Association will be organized in individual groups around each well.
The five (5) wells proposed for the scheme will have an average discharge rate of 75 litres per seconds. This translates to approximately 6,481.03 cubic metres per day.
There are two farming models, a one-hectare model and a five hectare one;
The cropping pattern is based on annual and crop rotation. Crops such as scallion, thyme, watermelon, tomato, cucumber, cauliflower and cabbage are planted Farmers also cultivate secondary crops like pumpkin, sweet pepper, pigeon peas, cassava and pak-choi. Additionally, guinea grass is grown for mulch – this is used to decrease the surface evaporation, control the growth of weed and prevent soil erosion.
Farmers are currently using domestic water from the two existing wells owned by the National Water Commission. Additionally, the lack of irrigation water contributes to low yields being experienced by these farmers.
With the additional water from these wells, crop yields could increase by as much as seventy-eight per cent over the current figure. For example:
YIELD Kg/ha
Crop Current Expected Percentage increase
Cucumber 15,000 22,000 47
escallion 19,500 29,000 48
pumpkin 9,000 16,000 78
Sweet pepper 10,200 16, 000 57
Watermelon 23,000 41,000 78