Clarke Urges Farmers to Invest in Large Scale Crop Production

Minister of Agriculture and Lands, Roger Clarke, has urged local farmers to invest in large scale crop production, in order to reap greater profits from the thriving hospitality sector.
This, the Minister said, would go a far way in helping to develop rural Jamaica. Mr. Clarke was addressing farmers and investors today (October 25), at a workshop on investment opportunities in agriculture, at the Terra Nova Hotel in Kingston.
The Minister said that with the proliferation of Spanish hotels in Jamaica, there would be an increase in demand for local food produce.
“Data sourced from the Statistical Institute of Jamaica show that food imports for the period January to December 2005, for the hotel and high-end restaurant sectors, were valued at an estimated $345 million,” he said.
Mr. Clarke said the Ministry was prepared to assist persons and groups who were interested in taking up the available opportunities in agriculture.
“As such, the Ministry has secured $100 million to assist investors who are prepared to come to the table with market-driven, economically viable projects. This facility will be administered through our flagship Agricultural Support Services Project, which has a proven track record in facilitating profitable and sustainable agricultural business ventures,” said the Minister.
He acknowledged that securing affordable capital funding for agricultural projects was challenging, but assured that there was help available.
“The Ministry will be taking the lead, which we hope the commercial institution will follow, in making venture capital financing available to people,” he said.
Moreover, the Minister noted that the $100 million venture capital facility would complement the Ministry’s $200 million Priority Programme which, he said, has “significantly boosted production in strategically targeted sub-sectors”.
Mr. Clarke said that despite the challenges of free trade which threatened guaranteed markets and subjected local farmers to fierce competition, there were “still enormous opportunities for the expansion of the agricultural sector”.
He said local perception of farmers as semi-literate persons with small earnings was working against the government’s thrust to increase the number of people in the sector, but said the Ministry’s four-year Agricultural Development Strategy, which was targeting the youth, was particularly helpful in dismissing these myths.
“The agricultural sector continues to be seen largely as a subsistence and welfare entity. While we earn considerable sums in foreign exchange from the traditional crops, because of longstanding preferential arrangements with the European market, there is the perception that this sector cannot be modernised by technological innovations,” the Minister said.
He pointed out that the Ministry had conducted extensive research to determine appropriate technologies and plant varieties that would thrive in Jamaica’s climate.
But the Minister said appropriate crops and climate suitability, though helpful, would not be enough. He said shrewd market intelligence among farmers was important.
“One of the things that continue to stymie the growth of the agricultural sector, is our propensity to produce without any reference to market demand,” he said.
Minister Clarke informed that there were guaranteed contractual market arrangements among the Ministry and hotel chains, agro-processors, supermarkets and manufacturers, through which local farmers could benefit if these entities were approached in an organised manner.
“Anyone who qualifies to access funding under the Ministry’s venture capital facility, must have the discipline to adhere to the contractual arrangements, which will be a corollary to the financing,” he said.Meanwhile, State Minister in the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands, Errol Ennis, said local farmers needed to organise their production more efficiently and strategically.
“There is a tendency in the system for people to plant first and then seek markets. There is no other economic activity where people do the production first and then seek the market afterwards. Every agricultural product that is properly organised with market, bears tremendous success,” he said.
Mr. Ennis said the Ministry’s reason for hosting the seminar, “was to highlight the cutting edge opportunities that exist in agriculture, where an investor is reasonably assured that if he does the right thing, he will make very good income”.