Hugh Martin IT IS very possible that next week this time a new Minister of Agriculture will not yet be named. The Prime Minister will of course be sworn in first thing on Thursday assuming there is not a tie. And he would probably have named his Ministers of Finance and National Security to secure the Treasury and ensure law and order. But he may want to have a good look among the successful candidates to determine the most suitable regardless of who previously held the post on the one hand or who shadowed the brief on the other. Whoever that person may be he/she will deserve our collective sympathy.
This is so because s/he will be faced with what is probably the worst state that agriculture has been in since Hurricane Gilbert 14 years ago. The cumulative effects of Tropical Storms Isidore and Lili and of the May/June floods have equalled if not surpassed the damage done by Gilbert. True, not many trees are down; nor are many buildings. But Gilbert didn't deposit so much water on the land, didn't cause so much soil erosion and didn't cause so much land slippage.
After Gilbert people could go about repairing or replacing their roofs. They could put in their insurance claims with the assurance that they didn't have to dig too deep into their own pockets. They could clear away the debris and begin to plough their land to put in a new crop. And they could reap their root crops at least and take them comfortably to market.
After the May/June Floods, Isidore and Lili, very few can make a claim on their insurance as the average clause had rendered their assets virtually uncovered. Many can't even enter their homes as the waters have not fully subsided. In some areas crops cannot be reaped as they are still submerged and can, sadly, be written off. Irrigation canals have been washed away along with some farm animals and sizeable portions of the land. That is the visual damage. What we can't see but is of equal anguish to the farmer is the loss of valuable inputs; fertilisers and pesticides applied; man-hours put in and paid for; seeds and seedlings planted. And perhaps the cruellest of all - loans to be repaid with no harvest to anticipate.
The Ministry of Agriculture and the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA) did their assessment of the damage after each catastrophe. In the case of the mid-year floods funds were allocated to assist some of the affected farmers to get back into production. RADA, the agency responsible for the distribution, had scarcely begun this exercise when Isidore, followed closely by Lili, put to naught all their efforts.
The new Minister of Agriculture will find himself up to his neck immediately he steps into his office at Hope. It will be no different if that person is the affable Roger Clarke returning to familiar territory. Even without these disasters production in all the major crops would have been below desirable levels due to other factors such as drought the previous year and in fact the flood rains of December. Domestic food crop production could have helped the overall performance of the sector especially among the short-term crops such as vegetables, but as it turned out hardly any of the cropping seasons was free from some adverse climatic condition.
Both the PNP and the JLP have promised in their manifestos that Agriculture will play a major role in their programme for national development. This is not new and history has shown that when it comes to manifestos implementation is not often a corollary of intention. How else can one explain the indifferent approach to agricultural research and development over these 40 years of Independence. Since Dr. T. P. Lecky's outstanding work in animal breeding in the 1950s there has hardly been a significant achievement in the discipline. Perhaps though, the late Ren Gonzalves' work in developing some varieties of bananas could count here especially since he operated under very difficult conditions and with limited resources.
The Minister of Agriculture in the next administration must insist that he be given the necessary resources to carry out the promised programmes. He must place emphasis on the development of new technologies and techniques by strengthening the research and development (R&D) facilities and providing the kind of remuneration that will attract and retain the best scientific minds to his Ministry.
He must provide adequate resources to the Extension Services so that they can motivate and train the farmers in the new and improved crops and cultivation methods that must be introduced in order to have increased yields and production.
Agriculture is too important to this country to be given lukewarm attention. This importance lies not only in its capacity to feed the nation, to provide the raw material for the related industries and the export market and employment for a great number of workers. It is equally important as a stabilising force in society. When Agriculture booms rural towns and villages prosper and develop, greater areas of employment open up and young people are encouraged to remain in their communities thus reducing the rural to urban drift. In fact the reversal of that drift is facilitated. The pressures on the cities are thus reduced resulting ultimately in the reduction of crime.
Mr. Minister of Agriculture, whoever you may be after next week, knock heads with your colleague Ministers of National Security and Finance and Planning and with the Prime Minister and get them to work with you in reviving agriculture, building the economy and solving the crime problem - in one fell swoop.
Hugh Martin is a communications specialist and farm broadcaster. E-mail: humar@cwjamaica.com.
