Farmers Urged not to take Law into their Hands

President of the Jamaica Agricultural Society (JAS), Senator Norman Grant is appealing to farmers who have lost their animals and agricultural produce to praedial thieves, to report the matter to the Police, instead of taking the law into their own hands.
In an interview with JIS News, Senator Grant pointed out that the agricultural sector continues to lose millions of dollars because of praedial larceny, and that the JAS and the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands would not relent in their efforts to bring praedial thieves to justice.
“Praedial larceny is like a cancer, it not only dampens the enthusiasm of our farmers and undermine our food security plan, but it also affect the advancement of the sector. We want to ensure that those who continue to reap where they have not sown, will get a clear message that as a society and as a people, we will not give them a free ride, and if they continue to steal from farmers, they must know that the full length of the law will be thrown at them,” he said.
Senator Grant pointed out that several praedial thieves have been prosecuted under the recently amended Agricultural Produce Act.
“In St. Catherine in the month of February, for instance, some 10 cases were brought before the Resident Magistrate’s Court. Seven of the 10 cases have been concluded and it has been established that those people were actually carrying out the act of praedial larceny, so we are seeing results,” Senator Grant said.
The President noted that as part of the efforts to reduce praedial larceny, the JAS intends to establish a praedial larceny hotline, where persons can call in and report known cases.
“There have been levels of success.we are not expecting to reap tremendous success overnight. We are on a marathon, not in a sprint, and we are engaging this process over the next 10 years, so by that time we should see a progressive decrease in the incidence of praedial larceny,” he said.