A CORRESPONDENT from Christiana, in a letter elsewhere on this page, is justifiably concerned about how agricultural production is approached in this country and has pointed out some of the weaknesses.
We agree that production diversity among farmers would help to reduce market gluts in many cases but this is not an easy situation to correct. Obviously no authority can use legal coercion to influence farmers to prudence in this regard. So that leaves the persuasion option perhaps by way of appropriate incentive.
This is where an organisation like the Jamaica Agricultural Society should come in. After well over a century of existence it ought to have now developed the sort of relationship with farmers that its advice would have been taken seriously. But we doubt it has developed to this point.
Again for the JAS or any other agency to fill the void it has to have access to market and crop forecasting data to enable it in the first place to furnish sound advice. Such things have been discussed sporadically but never carried to fruition.
Production zoning is another principle which has been mentioned from time to time without much practical attention and we are yet to be convinced that there has been any sustained effort to collect the data that must form the basis for any such recommendations.
There can be no doubt that agriculture in this country needs to become more diversified if it is to be a vibrant sector of the economy in the rapidly changing reality of the 21st century. Efforts have been made from time to time throughout most of this receding century but nothing has been pursued with the sort of doggedness and imagination needed to ensure success. Things are tried and abandoned whenever a problem surfaces.
The opinions on this page, except for the above, do not necessarily reflect the views of The Gleaner.
