Greater Emphasis on Marketing – Dr. Tufton

Minister of Agriculture Dr. Christopher Tufton, has said that greater emphasis is now being placed on marketing in the agricultural sector, with the establishment of a marketing unit in the Ministry.
“I am encouraging our farmers, all agricultural organisations, such as the Jamaica Agricultural Society, the Jamaica 4-H Clubs, and other related groups, to partner with the stakeholders of agriculture, whether it be suppliers of agricultural produce, or the manufacturers, because for agriculture to be sustainable, it requires a partnership,” the Minister said.
Dr. Tufton was addressing the annual Montpelier Agricultural and Industrial Show, in St. James, on April 13. Hundreds of farmers from across St. James participated in the event.

Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Christopher Tufton (C), pets a rabbit as he toured display booths at the annual Montpelier Agricultural and Industrial Show, held at the Montpelier Show Grounds in St. James on April 13. At second right is President of the St. James Association of Branch Societies of the Jamaica Agricultural Society, Glendon Harris.

“Over the last year or so, we have seen a marketing unit established in the Ministry. We have hired a marketing officer for every parish, including St. James, and we have four marketing experts at the Ministry, to complete a complement of 18 marketing officers within the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA) and the Ministry network, who will understand what the market requires and use that information to influence the farmers to grow more of what the market requires,” the Minister said.
Stressing that the consumer is an important stakeholder who is critical to the success of the sector’s primary production, Dr. Tufton said that, “too often we ignore the requirements and the demands of the consuming public in our efforts to produce locally.”

Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Christopher Tufton (C), admires this enormous piece of yam as he toured display booths at the annual Montpelier Agricultural and Industrial Show, held on the Montpelier Show Grounds in St. James on April 13.

“One of the things that we have tried to do over the past year and a half, is to try and understand what the Jamaican consumer as well as others may require from us as farmers, and use that information to encourage our farmers to produce a certain quality and a certain product type, so that they will have less of a difficulty to sell what they produce,” he said.
Dr. Tufton pointed out that over the past year, the Government had increased the technical support to farmers, by adding some 60 new extension officers to the RADA complement.
“Every parish has so far seen levels of improvement and we are presently recruiting some 14 animal health technicians, one for each parish. So in a parish, you are going to have, not only a livestock officer to help you with best practices in animal husbandry, you are going to have an animal health technician, supervised by the Veterinary Services Division, to provide farmers with basic medical care for animals,” the Minister said.
Dr. Tufton also told the farmers that by the end of the month, St. James would benefit from the availability of a tractor, as 14 new tractors are to arrive in the island, to be deployed across the country, under a tractor leasing scheme. “This will help the farmers to prepare their land at a low cost, and to boost their productivity,” the Minister said.