( L - R ) Golding, Brathwaite

Western Bureau:

Prime Minster Bruce Golding conceded to the notion that rural communities, especially in Jamaica, have suffered economically as a result of an imbalance in development between rural and urban sectors.

"These communities are not able to support their own development because the economic base of those communities, which is agriculture, is so impoverished that it is not able to generate the resources to sustain its own development," Golding confessed at the official opening of the Fifth Ministerial Meeting on Agriculture and the Rural Life in the Americas at the Ritz-Carlton Golf and Spa Resort.

Golding went on to say that for agriculture to be viable in the future, it has to be seen as more than an inescapable way of life or just to put food on the table. It has to be a robust income generator that can provide financially for families.

Agriculture is critical

The sentiment was also shared by Dr Chelston Brath-waite, director general of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture, who argued that agriculture was a key component to poverty reduction in the region.

"We must come to the realisation that agriculture is critical to national development. By promoting a modern, multi-sectorial agriculture sector, it can help to us reduce poverty and diminish the impact on climate change," Brathwaite revealed.

Chart a new course

In these turbulent times, and given recent projections on population increases, Brath-waite charged the delegation of more than 34 represen-tatives from the Caribbean and the Americas to look at agriculture for some of the solutions.

Brathwaite further added that for rural communities to benefit adequately from the business of agriculture, leaders have to chart a new course on development modules.

He explained that "current development modules have created a rural bias in which the approach to growing the economy is to develop the urban sector. In developing the urban area we have ignored the rural communities. As a consequence, persons have moved out of the rural areas to the city which creates serious social problems."

The weeklong event is the most important agricultural event in the hemisphere and seeks to discuss and reach agreements on the priorities and strategic actions for sustainable development of agriculture and rural life.

sheena.gayle@gleanerjm.com