ROGER CLARKE, Minister of Agriculture, is to attend today's monthly meeting of the board of directors of the Jamaica Agricultural Society (JAS) at its head office, Church Street, Kingston.
Mr. Clarke is to be accompanied by Errol Ennis, the Minister of State in the Ministry of Agriculture. They are expected to field questions from board members who are disgruntled with government's failure to support their proposal for an Agricultural Development Fund (ADF) to finance a major agricultural redevelopment project.
The JAS wrote to Prime Minister P.J. Patterson two Wednesdays ago, calling
for a meeting with him to discuss the issue. AA"Bobby" Pottinger, president
of the JAS, said last week that Mr. Patterson had expressed an interest in the
meeting.
The decision to write to the Prime Minister was taken at the previous board meeting by directors who expressed frustration and dismay at what they said was the lack of resolve by Government to commit itself to measures to stop the steady decline of the agricultural sector.
Mr. Ennis and Godfrey Perkins, the Ministry's Permanent Secretary, met with
the farmers on December 2 and suggested that they work together on proposals
for a master plan for the sector. But the farmers are determined that the Government
should implement their ADF proposals.
The JAS letter to the Prime Minister pointed out that board representatives from the various parishes who attend the meeting had been particularly vociferous on the subject. The meeting pointed to several proposals put to the Government by the JAS over the last two years which, in spite of promises of assistance from the government, had received no practical support.
