Ready yourselves – Shaw tells Small Farmers

Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries Minister, Hon. Audley Shaw, has called on small farmers to be ready to partner with larger farmers in an effort to increase their productivity.
The larger farmers have access to technology that Minister Shaw is hoping to tap under a mother farm/partner farm model to move the industry ahead.
“There is a lot of interest in agriculture in Jamaica from large and small farmers,” Minister Shaw said, noting discussions with the head of a major private sector, agro-industry player that is currently seeking 3,000 to 5,000 acres of land to operate a mother farm.
Additionally, the company is looking to splinter five to 10-acre plots to small farmers who will leverage the technological base of the mother farm to maximise their output.
Describing the 220,000 small farmers as “unsung heroes”, Minister Shaw, who was speaking at the launch of the 35th anniversary of Farmers’ Month at the Jamaica Agricultural Society’s headquarters in Kingston on April 4, also stressed the need for increased productivity, better cultural practices, and care and nurturing of the soil.
Minister Shaw lauded the performance of our local farmers in that, as a country, we are able to feed ourselves. Local farmers, he said, produce all the vegetables we consume and nearly all the tubers.
In addition, he noted that the country is also self-sufficient in chicken, pork and eggs, and, given the right incentives, local farmers have the potential to produce all the other proteins such as beef, milk and goat meat that Jamaica needs.
“My mission is to unleash the latent potential of agriculture to achieve the objectives of food self-sufficiency, maximize our earning from agricultural exports, strengthen the linkages between agriculture, manufacturing and tourism thus contributing to growth in the economy and enhancing rural development and prosperity for our farmers,” said Minister Shaw.
Of the constraints to the industry, Minister Shaw noted inadequate irrigation, especially given the impact of climate change on the local industry.
He said the Government will be spending over £52 million to address irrigation needs, noting the Essex Valley Irrigation Project, which is now being implemented, and rehabilitation of the irrigation systems in southern Clarendon and St. Catherine.
For his part, president of the Jamaica Agricultural Society, Norman Grant, said the JAS was ready to work with Minister Shaw as the new minister.
Mr. Grant said the Farmers’ Month celebration is aimed at recognising and honouring the significant contribution of farmers to Jamaica’s economy, and noted that 20% of the nation’s labour force consists of farmers.
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