By Marjorie A. Stair, Bureau Chief 
Stair
"Everyone wants to sit at my table, but few want to work in my field"
- Sign seen in a hotel room
THE AGRICULTURE, Forestry and Fisheries sectors lost 30 per cent of its labour force or 44,000 jobs between 1990 and 2000. They lost 62,200 jobs between 1988 and 2000. You can check the figures yourself in the Economic and Social Survey if they sound like fantasy.
| Year | Levels of |
| Employment by |
| Industry |
| (Agriculture, |
| Forestry, Fishing) |
1988 257,900
1989 247,700
1990 239,700
1999 200,100
2000 195,700
The Goods-Producing Sector i.e. Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing; Mining, Manufacturing and Construction lost 128,500. If we go back to 1988, then we would have lost 133,500 jobs in this group i.e. The Productive Sector of Jamaica has lost these jobs. Where are these people? What are they doing?
So when in citing as solid achievement, "Yu can call yuself!" demonstrating that one can now take a cellular phone from one pocket and call themselves on another phone on another part of their person, it would have been good if the solid achievement would have been, "Yu can feed yuself!" given that this was coming from the Member of Parliament for North Eastern St Elizabeth, the Honourable Minister of Agriculture, Roger Clarke.
As the political campaign heats up and a September election appears to be unlikely, the focus of those seeking office has shifted to education. The debate on who should pay for education - parents, government or a combination of both - has, hopefully only for the moment, omitted one important factor from the debate - the quality of the education being offered to our children and the fact that many of our teachers are migrating, either to go overseas or simply out of the classroom; and they have been doing so for a very long time although the pace has increased significantly in recent years.
In his 2002-2003 budget presentation to Parliament on 2002 April 25, the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Edward Seaga, spent a lot of time talking about agriculture. Sounding more like the Michael Manley government of the 1970s, he stated that Jamaica's underdevelopment was largely due to idle resources, not lack of resources. A statement that I endorse but hasten to add that the idle lands, idle hands, idle minds are as much the legacy of the JLP government of the 1980's, as it is that of the PNP governments of the 1970's and 1990's. The Leader of the Opposition, not for the first time, quoted Jonathan Swift:
"The man who can make two ears of corn or two blades of grass grow on the spot where only one grew before, would deserve better of mankind and render more essential service to the country than the whole race of politicians put together"
The Jamaican economy was essentially an agricultural one before the bauxite and tourism industries. The wealth
accumulated over the years and which was available for investment in other industries originally came from the agricultural sector, hence most of the country's wealth has its roots in agriculture. Even the tourism industry has its genesis with the banana boats coming into Montego Bay. Our manufacturing industry, whether it sources its materials overseas or locally, also has its roots in agriculture. Even the informal economy is driven by farming, albeit illegal, as both the coca and marijuana plants have to be cultivated before they are processed for use and export.
In a country where the 'wealth without work' syndrome predominates and there is more emphasis on form than substance, it has become difficult for even those foolhardy persons who still find it important to farm, to find reliable agricultural labour. The self-hate of so many of the African Diaspora in Jamaica that manifests itself in bleaching is only exceeded by the contempt that people have for agricultural labour and any form of manual work.
So two of the challenges facing the next government, whoever wins the next election are, firstly, who will feed the nation? Will we become solely dependent on imported food and will be able to afford it as the changes, which include the removal of subsidies on dumped agricultural products, take place in the international market place? The second is what will replace agriculture in the rural Jamaican economy?
We hear of impending and further lay-offs in the tourism sector; bauxite has already been downsized; one of the cellular companies is cutting 90 per cent of its staff and Phillip Paulwell is yet to produce the magical 40,000 jobs in the Information Technology sector and has already lost many of the few that were actually created.
Do the mathematics above and you will find that the other productive sectors - manufacturing and mining have also lost many jobs between 1990 and 2000. Mining moved from 6,400 to 4,600, a loss of 1800 or 28 per cent. Manufacturing moved from 133,800 in 1990 to 69,600 in 2000, a loss of 48 per cent or 64,200 jobs. Construction and Installation actually increased - I guess thanks to Operation PRIDE and the major road construction projects, moving from 54,900 to 81,500, an increase of 26,600 or 48 per cent.
The loss of jobs, especially in rural Jamaica, is linked to the issue of education. The Jamaica Survey of Living Condition 1999 and 2000 tells us that the characteristics of the Out-of -School population continued to be largely male, rural and poor. The 2000 survey states: "There is extensive research both locally and internationally which point to the fact that school outcome and pupil performance are dependent on a complex mix of economic and social factors which impinge on both the home's and the school's ability to facilitate the educational process."
I believe we should widen the present debate to examine this complex mix of factors, which, for rural Jamaica must include the loss of 30 per cent of the jobs in the agricultural sector over the past ten years. These jobs, have been in the main, not being replaced hence the increased poverty of rural Jamaica.
