Jamaica to add 95 climate-resilient greenhouses as ministers outline agriculture, health and labour plans

The administration will invest eight hundred million dollars to build ninety-five new greenhouses in several parishes before the end of this year, part of a wider push to make farming more resilient to climate shocks. Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining Floyd Green announced the outlay on Wednesday during his sectoral debate presentation.

Under the distribution he described, forty units are earmarked for Mocha in Clarendon, ten for Lancaster in southern Manchester, twenty for Water Valley in St. Ann, ten for Damhead in St. Catherine, and fifteen for Blackstone Edge in St. Ann. In Manchester, he said an existing greenhouse cluster would evolve into a protected agricultural zone with added storage and a new farm road.

Separately, more than one point five billion dollars from the Green Climate Fund’s Adapt Jamaica programme is set to be spent over the next five years to extend a climate-resilient greenhouse drive islandwide. Officials are prioritising structures that can survive a category-five hurricane and suit local conditions, he said.

To ease drought pressure on producers, a one hundred and forty-five million dollar programme will build small water catchment ponds in high-output, drought-prone parishes. The ministry will also add two water trucks for the NIC to reach underserved communities, rehabilitate existing catchment tanks for farm use, and widen support with plastic and grass mulch, drip irrigation kits and storage tanks, with roll-out already under way, according to Green.

The House of Representatives has passed the Conch Export Levy (Amendment) Act 2026, which Green piloted during Tuesday’s sitting. The measure updates how export duties are handled so payment is no longer locked to the moment goods are shipped, allowing other timetables where justified by industry conditions and weather disruptions. The minister may set how long exporters have to pay, whether sums are due in full or by instalments, and may waive, reduce or remit the levy in defined cases, subject to parliamentary oversight through orders. Payment windows could be extended up to twelve months after an export health certificate and export licence issue, and any levy change must rest on recommendations from the National Fisheries Authority and the Fisheries Management and Development Fund board after reviewing trade conditions, economic viability and sustainability. The bill also enlarges the fund’s management board to nine members, six ex officio and three industry representatives.

Health and Wellness Minister Dr Christopher Tufton told Parliament on Tuesday that two large hospitals should open this financial year, with Spanish Town Hospital following around the middle of the next financial year. Cornwall Regional Hospital and the Western Child and Adolescent Hospital are slated to admit patients in the current financial year, he said, while rebuilt major health centres at St Jago, Old Harbour and Greater Portmore should begin serving people this calendar year with expanded labs, pharmacies and diagnostic services.

Tufton also said government will launch a cross-sector drive against period poverty—the lack of affordable menstrual products, information and suitable sanitation—with a national menstrual health equity pilot across eight schools reaching about two thousand girls chosen partly by PATH enrolment. Survey figures he cited suggest one in four girls in low-income communities may miss classes during menstruation for lack of supplies, and only thirty per cent of public schools now offer free products, patterns tied to absenteeism and wider learning gaps. The fifty-million-dollar envelope will pair supplies with water, sanitation and hygiene upgrades, HPV immunisation, hygiene education and HIV and STI prevention messaging, delivered with the Ministry of Education, UNICEF and the HerFlow Foundation, aiming to inform a lasting national policy.

Workers Week 2026 runs 17–25 May on the theme “Voices heard, shaping labour policies in an evolving labour market,” with the Ministry of Labour and Social Security leading the programme while the National Labour Day Secretariat in the culture ministry handles Labour Day. Jillian Codus, chief technical director in the labour ministry, said activities will foreground workers in policy conversations. The schedule includes a national thanksgiving service on Sunday 17 May, an Industrial Disputes Tribunal symposium at the UWI Regional Headquarters in St Andrew on Wednesday 20 May, a wreath-laying at the Sam Isaacs monument on the Kingston waterfront and a labour roadshow in St Ann on Thursday 21 May, the fifth “Frome Reflections” gathering at Workers Park in Frome, Westmoreland, on 22 May, islandwide centenarian visits on 23–24 May, and islandwide Labour Day projects on Monday 25 May focused on sport and community development under the theme “One people, one purpose in all things Jamaica wins.”

The Consumer Affairs Commission said PanCaribbean Sugar Company Limited has recalled product bearing manufacturing dates from 30 March to 12 April 2026 and urged buyers to return items to the place of purchase for redress, seeking medical care and keeping records if a serious health issue arises.

Early childhood psychologist Chavelle Campbell of the Early Childhood Commission told a magazine segment that bullying among very young children can be physical, relational or verbal, thrives on power imbalance, and differs from ordinary rough play because it is repeated, aggressive and intended to harm. She urged caregivers to model respectful conduct, apologise when they err, affirm children’s differences to blunt stigma, and pair schools with families on warning signs such as withdrawal, school refusal or regression in toileting, while building resilience through positive guidance rather than only negative commands.