Agriculture Minister Audley Shaw has pledged to aggressively expand the footprint of drip irrigation as Jamaican farmers wilt under searing temperatures amid below-average rainfall.

The minister said that he would anchor the expansion of drip irrigation under the production-incentive programme to offset the losses of farmers.

Shaw also talked up the importance of farmers’ markets in easing the financial fallout caused by the downturn in tourism.

The Rural Agricultural Development Authority has vigorously promoted farmers’ markets across several parishes.

We don’t have a problem selling what we are producing,” Shaw said, adding that the ministry was seeking to tap CARICOM and diaspora markets to insulate agriculture from tourism-related shocks.