Hutchinson JAMAICA LABOUR Party (JLP) spokesman on agriculture, J.C. Hutchinson, says that "the bottom has dropped out" of the agriculture sector under the leadership of the current Government.
"There is no longer a hole in the agricultural bucket, the bottom has dropped out," Mr. Hutchinson said on the opening day of the 2001/2002 Sectoral Debate in the House of Representatives, Tuesday.
The Opposition spokesman said that in the agricultural sector, the cash crop sub-sector was the area targeted as having the greatest potential for expansion, but over the past 12 years there has been hardly any increase in any crop.
"Carrots, cabbage, escallion, thyme, pepper and watermelon were the only crops that increased in 1999 and 2000 over 1986. However, all crops were well below the 1996 production figure except for escallion and thyme," Mr. Hutchinson said.
He said that cabbage and tomato increased but most of it was dumped, rot in the fields, or were sold for "little or nothing.
Drought was not the only cause for decreased production in 2000, he said. The major cause was the lack of a market for agricultural produce.
"Between 1993 and 1996 farmers were motivated to produce and they did produce, but they found that they did not have a market for their crops, so many stopped farming while others cut back on production. Even the latter part of the year, when the drought conditions improved, there was still a decline in agricultural production although at a reduced rate," he said.
He said that for the past two years the Government has been focusing on a number of special crops, including dasheen, hot pepper, sweet potato, yams, plantains and vegetables. These crops were targeted to bring about growth under the Domestic Food Crop Programme. However, these were the crops which have been declining most in production.
"The Minister's domestic food crop programme is therefore not working. Nothing is working. It is a stagnant sector," Mr. Hutchinson said.
He said the flood of imported Irish potatoes will put local potato farmers out of production in another three years.
Pepper production has fallen over 35 per cent since 1996, plantain over 38 per cent since 1993, pumpkin over 18 per cent since 1995, yams over 44 per cent since 1996 and over 24 per cent between 1999 and 2000 and dasheen production has declined by over 29 per cent between 1999 and 2000.
"Sometimes people say that enough is not being said on agriculture from this side, (but) over the past three years I have identified the problems in the agricultural sector and I have even put forward ways in which I feel they can be solved," Mr. Hutchinson said.
He said that it did not make sense to keep repeating the same suggestions, "because it is like water on a duck's back, nothing is acted upon, or when acted upon it is way too late."
But, Mr. Hutchinson proceeded to restate some of his proposals anyway. These include: expansion of the extension services for the dissemination of information; more funding for available technology to expand its use on a commercial basis and to make it available to more farmers; an integrated marketing system linking farmers to exporters, processors, hotels, etcetera; immediate repairs to all farm roads; and implementation of large-scale, drip irrigation systems.
