Jamaica ; Towards sustainable and profitable agriculture

  

 

AGRICULTURE minister, Mr Derrick Kellier, tells us that there is a huge unsatisfied demand for Jamaica's farm produce in the United States.
"There are some 52 items on the pre-clearance list for the import of agricultural produce into the United States, and we are currently only supplying less than a quarter of the items on the list," Mr Kellier said at a buyers' mission forum in Kingston earlier this week.
The minister identified yams dasheens, sweet potatoes, peppers, herbs, spices and neutraceuticals among produce with "serious potential for export".
For those Jamaicans who have been around for a while, there may well be a strong sense of déjà vu. In fact they have been hearing such stories from government and official sources for decades.

It's not for nothing that Jamaica is sometimes referred to as a land of samples. Despite the long-standing demand, especially in North America and Britain, for produce such as named above, the country -- for all sorts of reasons -- has never come close to satisfying those markets.

Obviously, Jamaica has built-in limitations because of small size. With the best will in the world, small mountainous Jamaica will not be able to compete with larger countries in Central and South America, for example, in terms of mass production.
However, there is the strong perception -- not only among the large and thriving Jamaican diaspora -- that produce grown here is superior in taste, texture, and quality to that originating elsewhere.
The reasons may well be related to peculiar climatic conditions -- such as are said to be the case for coffee grown in the Blue Mountains and ginger in the central highlands.
Whatever the reasons, that strong and abiding perception that the Jamaican product is superior, provides tremendous opportunities for niche marketing using the national brand.
None of what has been said here is new. It's just that, despite all the talk down the years, concrete action has proven slow and difficult.
And yet this newspaper believes the country is now at a stage for meaningful takeoff in agriculture.
We refer particularly to the development of irrigated agricultural parks (agro parks), which evidence suggest have been mostly successful.
Nine agro parks developed so far are said to have contributed massively to easing the effects of last year's horrendous drought as well as the 2015 repeat of that experience.
Despite the intense drought, Jamaica's food import bill for 2014 is said to have decreased by US$43.6, partly as a result of agro-park production.
We are assured by Finance Minister Dr Peter Phillips -- whose meticulous approach to Jamaica's economic reconstruction has attracted admiration -- that 21 agro parks are to be established over the next three years.
Irrigation, which is key to well-planned agriculture, has made the real difference for the agro parks. We are aware that irrigation projects are very costly and there are environmental considerations which must be taken on board.
This newspaper believes, though, that with rigorous planning and implementation over the next few years, the agro-park model will not only assist the country's ongoing drive to cut imported food, it will go a far way in meeting that potentially highly profitable overseas demand.
Of course, there must also be the value-added projects as production surges -- involving post-harvesting storage and processing -- in the push towards genuine agro-industrial economy. But, let's go one step at a time.

 Source Jamaica Observer