Gov’t Looking to Reduce Agricultural Imports

Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, Hon. Roger Clarke, said that increasing production and consumption of local produce is a top priority of government, as it looks to reign in imports and increase economic gains.

“In a developing country such as ours, and as a government, we believe… (this) must and should be the order of the day,” he said on February 28 at the re-launch of the Agricultural Produce Receipt Book Programme at the Ministry’s Hope Gardens offices in St. Andrew.

Mr. Clarke informed that last year, the more than 200,000 farmers engaged in agriculture in Jamaica, produced some 500,000 tonnes of domestic food crop. However, the country imported some US$802 million worth of food.

“This says that there are opportunities out there to increase foreign exchange earnings, import substitution and to really feed ourselves,” he asserted.

The Minister noted that the aim of the government is to work towards the reduction of imports and increase local production for consumption and export.

“We believe that the farmers of this country have a vital role to play in growing our way out of the current challenges we face and we have to encourage them in that path,” he stated. “We want to ensure that we encourage our farmers to go into production in a serious way and that is one way where we can create jobs and get our young people back on the land,” he added.

The Agriculture Minister noted that even as the government seeks to boost production, measures must be put in place to address praedial larceny, which he argued, is one of the main problems crippling the sector.

“Our farmers have been experiencing a continuous and a protracted problem – that of the theft of their agricultural produce by unscrupulous, ill-minded and sometimes marauding criminals,” he stated.

He argued that Jamaica’s true potential was being threatened by praedial larceny, costing losses to the sector of more than $5 billion per annum. “This suffocates the expansion of the sector and discourages new entrants,” he stated.

Under the receipt book programme, all registered farmers and vendors are required to issue a receipt, identifiable by a unique number, to anyone who purchases agricultural produce, as proof of payment. 

Mr. Clarke noted that with the use of the produce receipt book, all stakeholders stand to benefit – farmers, vendors and consumers alike.

By Athaliah Reynolds-Baker, JIS Reporter