Land Registration Programme Delivers Ownership to Jamaica's Long-settled Communities
The quiet handover of land titles in St Elizabeth is changing ownership customs in a parish long defined by informal settlement and farming traditions passed down without paperwork.
More than 700 residents in 34 communities have now received legal titles under the Government’s Systematic Land Registration Programme, with 50 beneficiaries collecting documents during a recent ceremony at the Lacovia Community Centre. Officials say the effort is giving families legal recognition that many have lacked for generations.
Prime Minister Andrew Holness said land ownership remains central to long-term economic security.
“That title changes the relationship you have with the land,” he said, per the Jamaica Observer. “It moves it from something you occupy to something you can invest in, borrow against and build wealth from.”
Holness noted that by early December, the National Land Agency had distributed 9,577 titles nationwide, nearly 6,000 of them in St Elizabeth. He said the Government removed financial barriers by covering survey and legal costs.
“We took on those costs so people could finally regularise ownership and secure what they already worked for,” he said.
The recent distribution builds on a similar milestone reached earlier this year. In July, about 200 small farmers in south St Elizabeth received titles during the groundbreaking ceremony for the Pedro Plains Irrigation Expansion Project in Short Hills. Those farmers were the first of an estimated 1,000 people slated to benefit from free land titles tied to the $26 billion irrigation project.
Holness said formal ownership is essential if agriculture is to move beyond subsistence. “You can’t ask farmers to expand, get financing or invest in processing if they have no proof the land is theirs,” he said.
Minister without portfolio Robert Montague said communities, including Lacovia, Essex Valley, Flagama and Southfield, are seeing long-awaited change. “For many families, this is the first time the land they live on and farm on will carry their name,” he said.
Agriculture Minister Floyd Green said the approach links infrastructure with ownership. “We are not just delivering water,” he said. “We are ensuring farmers can truly own and benefit from their lands.”
Officials say the programme supports national food security while strengthening rural stability.