Robert Buddan

Agriculture is our oldest industry. If there is any industry close to people with the potential to rebuild the rural economy and sustain thousands of families, it is agriculture. Agriculture is our natural economy bringing people, land, climate and water resources together.

Agriculture's importance has less to do with sentiments and more with its real economic potential. Minister Roger Clarke and the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands are, therefore, taking agriculture on the road through five roadshows to spread the word that agriculture is worth investing in, is one of the leading pillars of economic growth, and is the key to reducing rural poverty. This roadshow must transform the national fatalism that surrounds agriculture and rural life.

The minister has challenged those who talk about the need to build agriculture, feed the country, provide jobs, reduce poverty, and so on, to "put their money where their mouth is." Minister Clarke has clearly put his labour where his mouth is, judging from the strong growth reported in the sector.

Agriculture's growth possibilities are enormous. Harmony Cove is a US$2 billion investment that will bring many people to Jamaica who will have to be fed. The growing number of new hotel rooms will be filled with increasing numbers of tourists year after year who we have to feed. Spanish investments alone will amount to US$550-US$600 million and some 13 hotels with 5,000 rooms.

The international community celebrated World Food Day and World Tourism Day in the last few weeks. This is significant for Jamaica because both agriculture and tourism support each other. Spanish investors understand this. They plan to support alternative agriculture and the Spanish Government has given funds to support tourism in CARICOM and a school of tourism in Jamaica. Minister of Tourism, Aloun Assamba, is confident that Jamaica will record three million visitors this year and arrivals are already well above target. We are earning more tourist dollars because visitors are spending more on food and other local items.

GOOD TIME TO INVEST

The economic update by the Minister of Finance demonstrates that agriculture is leading our rising economic growth. Inflows of foreign direct investment are above target, some of which is going into agriculture. Inflation continues to run in single digits, which will bring good returns on agricultural investments. Interest rates on government paper continue to go down so that institutional investors should be looking to the real economy, including agriculture, for profits. The NIBJ is on-lending new bank capital to farmers, and as interest on government paper comes down, more banks will be looking to lend money for agriculture at rates lower than they have been lending.

This is as good a time as any to invest in agriculture. Domestic crop production grew by 20 per cent in the first quarter of the year and farmers outdid themselves with a 30 per cent increase in the second quarter. PIOJ figures show that 43 per cent of rural household incomes goes towards food and drink so there is a ready market for further growth. In fact, the ministry's new mandate under Prime Minister Simpson Miller is to give priority to agriculture as the platform for rural development.

Minister Clarke pointed out in his sectoral presentation earlier this year that Government regards "agriculture as one of the primary engines of economic growth and rural development." The Prime Minister wants nothing less than a new model of agriculture for integrated rural-urban development consistent with Jamaica's development plans. The growth figures and growth prospects show that this is not to be treated as just mere talk.

The ministry's repositioning will advance the growth in agriculture. Lands, irrigation, non-bauxite mining, and spatial data management have returned to the ministry. Also, the ministry now envisions agriculture to be more than a sector and as a platform for economic growth, as well as a component of all other sectors like tourism, manufacturing, services and infrastructure.

The financial support is also there. Agriculture received $1.8 billion more in this year's budget, almost 90 per cent more than the revised budget of last year. The minister has just announced a $100 million joint venture fund for investors. There is much else that is new.

Markets

One of the new and exciting possibilities for alternative agriculture is Sea Island cotton. Senator Norman Grant, president of the Jamaica Agricultural Society (JAS), says that Sea Island cotton is in great demand in the United States, Japan and Switzerland and that our prices are competitive and profitable. He regards it as a goldmine. Some 17 farmers produce it in four parishes but there is room for larger acreages of 100 acres or more. There are large overseas markets for honey too. Sugar, molasses, and rum are making a comeback through a modernisation process involving replanting of higher yield sugar cane to produce three million tonnes of cane in the immediate future. That will also boost our ethanol industry. Export markets exist for thyme, pepper, citrus, sweet potato, and dasheen. There is a large domestic market as well. In 2005, Jamaica spent $345 million to import food for the tourism industry. Jamaica spent $300 million in one year to import fruit juice concentrates for local processing.

Technology

Greenhouse (hydroponics) technology now makes it possible to have much higher crop yield with year-round production under controlled conditions to protect crops from disease, the vagaries of weather and make supply more reliable. Parishes like St. Ann, St. Elizabeth, Manchester and St. Andrew have taken the lead and St. James is to follow. The Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA) says that greenhouse tomatoes are yielding three times the amount produced in the field. Greenhouses are producing tomatoes, lettuce and strawberry. Yields can be greater by as much as 10 times that of field production.

Theft

Praedial larceny costs the sector $4 billion each year, which is 25 per cent of production. The Agricultural Produce Act increases fines and jail terms for thieves. In addition, the police have graduated 34 trained officers to work in rural areas. But farmers are also being registered and provided with receipt books to authenticate the sources of a wide range of agricultural produce and livestock. Already, 100,000 farmers have been registered, many already have receipt books, and praedial thieves are being arrested under the system. Farmers in Portland have the highest rate of registration. Others must get registered to protect their business.

Titles

More production of course requires more farmers with land and the security of land titles. Minister Clarke has made this a priority of his ministry There are some 650,000 parcels of land in Jamaica, 50 per cent of which were unregistered as at mid-year 2006. The ministry will provide titles for 20,000 parcels as a matter of priority. New land titles will be issued in November and some 12,000 lots are in different stages of being surveyed in eight parishes. The minister is working with parish councils and NEPA to accelerate the distribution of titles as part of land settlement policies. More land is to be made available through the National Land Divestment Committee.

Agriculture is the largest employer of people in Jamaica. The ministry and RADA, the JAS, and the Jamaica Agricultural Development Foundation are reinventing agriculture as the best basis for a people's economy. The prospects look bright. Investors must now join the roadshow.

Robert Buddan lectures in the Department of Government, UWI. Email: Robert.Buddan@uwimona.edu.jm.