THE ANGER and frustration expressed by farmers at Wednesday's 109th annual general meeting of the Jamaica Agricultural Society (JAS), over the stalling of the passage of a Bill to fight praedial larceny is understandable.
The farmers who have suffered at the hands of praedial thieves over many years are clamouring for something, anything, to be done that will arrest the problem. They cannot be faulted for their impatience. The specific piece of legislation at the centre of controversy has been more than a decade in the making. But Jamaica has no lack of laws and punitive measures to deal with thieves of one kind or another. The problem, as with so many other areas in Jamaican life, is implementation.
Farmers need to recognise too that the passage of legislation by itself, though necessary, won't give them much more protection than they now enjoy. What is needed are more effective systems of community monitoring, action by the police and action by the courts.
The report in yesterday's Gleaner referred to farmers accusing the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) of being the main culprit in holding up the Bill. But this charge may be borne out of frustration rather than a careful look at the position taken by the party's spokesman on agriculture, J.C. Hutchinson, in the recent debates on the Bill.
Essentially, the JLP is insisting that the fulcrum on which the proposed Bill rests, the issuing of a receipt book to monitor the sale of livestock and produce, is shaky. It requires a level of bureaucracy, which in the long run might just deepen rather than ease the farmers' frustration. Mr. Hutchinson contends also that it will probably open the door to further rascality and bribery. He does have a point. Legislators need to ensure that in trying to catch the crooks, they don't create more headaches for the hardworking farmers who have already suffered too much.
We don't believe it is beyond the JAS, and the various commodity boards, to craft a better alternative to the present Bill and to mount a more effective lobby than they have done to date to see to the passage of the Bill.
In other jurisdictions, farmers have learnt to use their collective strength to help craft policies that serve their interests better. Local farmers perhaps need to look carefully at the effectiveness of their own leadership and lobby efforts.
Agriculture is too important a sector to be allowed to be destroyed by thieves. It remains the cornerstone for the development and transformation of rural Jamaica. It's time for us to stop playing games with the sector. It's time for parliamentarians to move swiftly on the praedial larceny Bill and implement the measures promptly, when passed. The country has had more than enough of the quibbling and grandstanding.
THE OPINIONS ON THIS PAGE, EXCEPT FOR THE ABOVE, DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE GLEANER.
