THE EDITOR, Sir:
THE ANNOUNCEMENT by opposition spokesman on Agriculture, J.C. Hutchinson concerning the twinning of the Jamaica Agricultural Society and the Rural Agricultural Development Organisation to become a Community Agricultural Organisation is a recommendation that looks unwise.
With the present crisis in the agricultural sector due to a lack of technical and financial support it would be most unwise to link the JAS which has been underperforming for over 16 years due to the lack of new ideas and young people in its decision-making body with a state agency with red tape, and party 'yes men.'
Mr. Hutchinson's recommendation is like asking two half-dead roosters to do another round in the ring because big bucks are depending on their survival. Putting the JAS/RADA together to form one institution would take away the powers from a powerful lobby group as the JAS and creating a government football filled with red tape.
The Enchanted Youth Development Association, Youth in Agricultural Action Team (YATA) is calling for the dissolution of the state-run RADA and allow the project unit in the Ministry as also the technical unit to carry out the functions of RADA in order to reduce waste and service overlap.
We are also recommending that the JAS become more farmer-friendly, more sustainable; make its Denbigh complex in Clarendon user-friendly with the establishment of a 'national green market' that will allow higglers a half-way house to get their produce rather than going to St. Elizabeth or Trelawny parishes.
The JAS needs to make better use of its Church Street complex in the heart of Kingston. And most of all the JAS need to put in place a manifesto and a five-year Action Plan sustainable for the development of the agricultural community.
We are further recommending that after the publication of the manifesto the JAS set out to register 3,000 farmers islandwide to pay $500 per month to the JAS administration with a matching grant of 50 per cent from the government.
And we are finally calling on the Ministry of Agriculture to assist in the re-establishment of the National Youth in Agriculture Youth Advisory Council.`I am etc.,
EGETON NEWMAN
President, Enchanted Youth in Agriculture Action Team
123 Duke Street
Kingston
