The Agricultural Health and Food Safety of Jamaica span three government ministries, namely Agriculture (MOA), Health (MOH), as well as Industry, Technology, Energy and Commerce (MCST). The overlap and gaps between these ministries are being eliminated by the integration services offered by the Agricultural Support Services Project (ASSP).

The Agricultural Support Services Project (ASSP) in the Ministry of Agriculture augments the protection capability by focusing on prevention first, then intervention, and finally, response. Major activities consist of: quarantine, inspection, import/export certification, surveys on status of pest and disease outbreaks, research programmes, policy development, networking and information management, development of coordinating mechanisms, and updating legislation.

These efforts ultimately aims at ensuring that the same level of health protection for produce consumed in and exported from the island is achieved for goods being imported into the country. Current agricultural health programmes implemented are the:

• Import/Export One Stop shops
• Plant Health Surveillance and Pest Response System