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(Press release) Farmers have expressed their gratitude towards the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Marine Resources after recently receiving 1000-gallon water tanks to ease the challenges caused by water shortages.

During the Media Unit’s recent farm visits, three farmers expressed gratitude for the tanks and explained how the water storage tanks help to boost food production during the dry season.

Crop farmer, Leon “Yella” Anthony of Stapleton, St. Peters expressed heartfelt gratitude while also providing a brief description of his setup.

“I want to give thanks to the Ministry of Agriculture for really helping me and providing a 1000- gallon tank so I can help increase on my crop production during the hot season. As you can see, I just installed my tank by getting an inch and a half coupling, put it into the tank, come out with an inch and a half pipe, break it down to a three quarter and then go right down to the three-quarter sub-main which will feed all the plants. That is a plus for me during the hot season, so I have to give thanks”, he explained.

Livestock Farmers, Audrine and Curvin Bradshaw were also recipients of a tank which they say has been a great help on their pig farm in Mansion.

“We just want to say thanks to the Ministry of Agriculture for supplying us with the water tank, [we are] very grateful and [it’s] useful and we are going to make great use of it for when the rain falls, the water goes into the tank to supply the water for the animals because yes, sometimes we do have shortage of water and we don’t know where to turn so I am grateful for the tank. God bless you guys”, Mrs. Bradshaw expressed.

Meanwhile, Crop Farmer and Co-Owner of Riches of the Earth farm, Victoria Baucom Berkeley said the tank distribution is timely to help farmers like her and her husband Sydney Berkeley as they rely heavily on water and food from their trees.

She said, “we are so happy to have this water tank here because right now we are having a kind of a drought, especially on the west side we’re not getting much rain and we need this water for our trees, we make most of our product from the trees that we have that we grow from our fruit trees and from the leaves, so it’s very important for us to have this water. So now that Sydney has connected the tank to the irrigation system, we are now able to water our trees so that it can get what it needs. We’re very grateful for that. This tank Sydney has been talking about, he wanted one for a very long time, so to get one now is something that we’re grateful for from the Ministry of Agriculture”.

The corrosion-resistant tanks can store a total of 3785 litres and are ideal for rainwater harvesting and low maintenance water storage.

Phase 2 of the distribution process is set to begin shortly and will see the allocation of water tanks to dozens of farmers in high priority communities like Cayon.