Former minister and current Opposition spokesman for agriculture, Roger Clarke, says he regrets having undertaken the national screw worm eradication programme when he was in government.

Making his contribution to the Sectoral Debate in the House of Representatives on Wednesday, Clarke admitted he did not have the knowledge required for the 10-year-old programme when it got under way.

"I neither had the expertise nor the know-how to deal with controlling flies," Clarke told the House.

The screw worm eradication programme was originally designed to be a three-year project (1998-2001) and was estimated at the time to cost some $324 million.

However, with nearly $2 billion spent on the eradication of the pest, screw worm remains a major threat to animals with wounds.

According to Clarke, the abundance of stray animals throughout the country allows for screw worm flies to breed easily. He also acknowledged that many of the flies that were used in the programme were sub-standard or, as he put it, the "wrong fly".

Sterile flies

As part of the eradication programme, sterile flies were released to mate with screw worm flies. The aim was to kill the screw worm flies.

Meanwhile, Clarke also took the opportunity to criticise the Budget Debate presentation of his successor in the agriculture ministry. He referred to it as "plagiarism without admittance".

According to Clarke, Tufton's presentation was based on the ministry's Agricultural Development Strategy, which he had set up as minister.

"I was flabbergasted sometimes, I was upset sometimes, I wanted to cry some of the time," Clarke said, claiming Tufton not only failed to acknowledge his work but did not extend the olive branch.

"In a time when we are facing one of the worst food crises in our history, I was hoping to hear a request from the minister for cooperation in the struggle," Clarke said. "Instead, he spent nearly half his speech castigating the Opposition." Clarke said.

The Gleaner was unable to contact Tufton, who is off the island.

Tufton was critical of the People's National Party and Clarke for allowing agriculture to fall into rot.

However, according to Clarke, decline in agriculture's contribution to gross domestic product (GDP) was due to the fact that the level of private sector investment had been flat.

Clarke added that "the number of setbacks we have had because of adverse weather condition is phenomenal. The increasing cost of inputs such as fertiliser, herbicides ... has caused some farmers to use less of these products or cut back on acreage. The continuing saga of praedial larceny also causes distortion in the production figures," Clarke said.

Source markets

While encouraging Government to continue on the path to increased agricultural production, Clarke said Government had to ensure that farmers could find markets for their products or the move would be counter productive.

On the issue of cassava production, Clarke urged the minister, "don't oversell it".