DENBIGH, Clarendon — An additional $60 million has been allocated to the country’s drought mitigation programme, with a focus on local farmers.

Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining Floyd Green gave a breakdown of where the funds will be channelled.

“[About] $20 million of that will go to trucking of water for our farmers. But the bigger portion is to provide storage and drip irrigation support to our farmers and also to work on building catchment ponds. When you are in this dry period, we get a bout of shower and it goes to waste and we don’t want that. And so we are on a drive now to build retention ponds with our farmers and community groups so they can be prepared to face these increases in dry temperatures,” he said Saturday at the 72nd staging of the annual Denbigh Agricultural Industrial and Food Show in Clarendon.