European Union Banana Support Programme

European Union Banana Support Programme

The Infrastructure Improvement Project for Traditional Banana Growing Communities was funded by a 1,156,000 euro grant from the European Union Banana Support Programme Rural Diversification Programme, with counterpart funding of 289,000 euro from the Government of Jamaica (GoJ), totaling a project cost of 1,445,000 euro. The overall European Union Banana Support Programme Rural Diversification Programme project was implemented under the auspices of the Ministry of Agriculture and executed by the Rural Agricultural Development Agency (RADA), with funding from the European Union (EU).This Infrastructure Improvement Project for Traditional Banana Growing Communities, strived to enhance the Government of Jamaica’s (GoJ) rural development efforts and facilitated improvement in the key sectors of education and transportation.More specifically, the intervention aimed at improving access to basic social infrastructure; to include agricultural feeder roads and schools. Hence, the projects proposed to be implemented under this programme included six road projects, comprising 12.7 kilometres of roadway and the expansion of a school. Specifically they are:

  1. Moore Town Road Rehabilitation, Portland
  2. Bellevue Road Rehabilitation, Portland
  3. Duncan’s Pen / Windsor Road Rehabilitation, St. Catherine
  4. Maryland Road Construction, St. Catherine
  5. Preston Land Rural Feeder Road Rehabilitation, St. Mary 
  6. Retreat Primary & Junior High School Expansion, St. Mary 

The Infrastructure Improvement Project for Traditional Banana Growing Communities was implemented over a two-year period which commenced on December 24, 2008 and ended on December 23, 2010. During this period, JSIF worked closely with various stakeholders such as community groups, government agencies and non-governmental organizations, to ensure compliance with established JSIF standards.