Parents are being urged to encourage their children to eat more locally produced food. Jamaica's minister of agriculture and fisheries, Dr Christopher Tufton, said among the multiple benefits that policy contained were saving foreign exchange, promoting employment and creating a healthier population.

"It is so fundamental for us to support agriculture, not just because of the crisis we face, but for the future sustainability of our society because we are an agrarian society, whether we want to accept it or not," he said.

Tufton was speaking at Friday's National Parent-Teacher Association of Jamaica general conference at Jamaica College in St Andrew.

He said that the multiplier impact of making farming sustainable and viable transcended the agricultural sector, and spins off into every other sector. He told the audience that it was healthier, most times, to eat local foods as nutritionists have consistently stated that Jamaica-produced food was generally healthier than imports.

"We have to get in the habit of recognising those critical benefits. Those benefits are in our interest. There are some collective benefits that we can derive, there are some individual benefits that we can derive, but it has to start in the home," he said.

Parents play key role

"It has to start with the parents, it has to start with the guardians, because you can make the change by making an adjustment in your choices, and the young minds, the ones who depend on us for guidance who, eventually, will have to provide guidance for those below them, are now at the most fertile stage of their development, when they determine what is right and wrong, what is acceptable or not acceptable," he explained.

He said that his ministry was determined to sensitise the youths through its school garden programme. He noted that, last year, through the 4-H Clubs, 422 school gardens were established in a similar number of schools. This exceeded the target of 300. The objective over three years is to have a garden in every primary and high school.