Hugh MartinJAMAICA AGRICULTURAL Society president A.A. 'Bobby' Pottinger was seemingly beside himself with joy following Agriculture Minister Roger Clarke's budget presentation last week Wednesday. Mr. Clarke had just announced that the Government's subvention to the JAS would be increased from $17.7 million last year to $40 million this year and that the Ministry of National Security would assume responsibility for the vexed issue of praedial larceny. It is instructive to note that the JAS received $26.5 million in 2000/2001.
According to The Gleaner of Thursday, April 25, he was especially pleased that the Minister had decided to shift the responsibility for the praedial larceny programme from the JAS to the Ministry of National Security.
"That's originally what we wanted. They didn't handle it over the years so we were forced to put it into our budget. But we are now satisfied that it's going to be handled by them and we are satisfied," he said.
One cannot help but think that the JAS' satiety threshold is low indeed when it is remembered that its expectation was for $50 million and a start-up injection of $100 million for its proposed (and Cabinet approved) Agricultural Credit Fund. Two weeks before this it was up in arms threatening to take to the streets at what it claimed was the Government's betrayal of its commitment to support the Agricultural Credit Fund and the praedial larceny initiative. Minister Clarke must be hugging himself with glee at managing to nullify a potentially nasty situation at so low a cost.
The Agricultural Credit Fund was supposed to finance the setting up of a domestic crops marketing system and the praedial larceny programme as well as provide farmer training and an agricultural equipment loan programme for farmers who could not afford to buy. When the Government did the about-face on its promise the JAS was livid and began to flex its century-old muscles. Obviously, years of inactivity had produced the inevitable result. Atrophy.
Mr. Pottinger is reported to have said last Thursday that the JAS plans to revisit the issue in the future.
"We still believe that this is the long-term approach to take because what we are trying to do is to prevent rural-urban migration and keep the young people in agriculture," he said. But Monday's Gleaner had Mr. Pottinger in a much more aggressive mood as if the real impact of the Minister's coup had just struck home. He was now saying that the JAS and its members were very disappointed that after 18 months of selling the idea of an agricultural development programme and a praedial larceny initiative they had come up empty-handed.
It does appear, and Mr. Pottinger et al had better realise it fast, that the Government does not have any confidence that the JAS has the capacity to produce what it proposed to do. Minister Clarke all but said it in his budget presentation when he declared, "I intend to appoint a Ministry team to do a proper audit and to develop a plan to deal with the JAS' outstanding debt."
The transfer of the praedial larceny programme to the Ministry of National Security is another clear indication of a lack of confidence in the JAS. Mr. Pottinger seems to welcome the decision but maybe he didn't have the benefit of afterthought nor the startling bit of information revealed in that interesting piece by Balford Henry in the Sunday Gleaner of April 28. If, as Mr. Henry claims, there are no funds allocated to the Ministry of National Security for the praedial larceny programme then the JAS has really been left out on a limb.
The appointment of a very senior police officer, Assistant Commissioner of Police Reggie Grant, to head the JAS' praedial larceny initiative was the clearest indication of the Government's commitment to the programme when it was proposed three years ago. ACP Grant was on a call-in radio programme the morning following Minister Clarke's budget presentation expressing pleasure that at last he would be able to get on with the job. According to him everything was in place to start the programme - everything but the funds. The Agriculture Minister's announcement was therefore music to his ears.
A check with the Ministry of National Security revealed that the Customer Service improvement programme of the Cabinet Office, started in the mid-1990s has paid handsome dividends. Everyone - from the telephone operator to the permanent secretary's secretary to the budget officer to the public relations officer - showed absolute politeness and co-operation. But none of them, up to my deadline, was able to confirm that an allocation was made for the praedial larceny programme.
One is left to believe therefore that the JAS can forget, for now at least, getting specialised attention to their biggest bugbear.
Hugh Martin is a communications specialist and farm broadcaster. E-mail:humar@cwjamaica.com.
