Hugh MartinUITE BY accident on Tuesday, while searching for a document, I stumbled on a clipping from The Daily Gleaner of April 10, 1965. It was the column "Candidly Yours" by Thomas Wright. Those were the days when columnists used pseudonyms although in most cases everyone knew very well who they were. Thomas Wright was none other than the late Morris Cargill. I had kept that clipping, I suppose, because I was flattered at the time that he had used an article of mine as the topic for his column. Finding it was a welcome bit of serendipity as it provided me with another perspective for today's column and allowed me a little more time to research Mr. Mark Brook's "Sick Soil" theory.
Thomas Wright's column actually dealt with two topics; first, my article on the therapeutic properties of bananas and second, a comment by the late Michael Manley about sugar cane. Both, echoes of the past, are interesting because of their relevance to the present. I will have to quote extensively from the column with apologies to the heirs of Thomas Wright.
"I am, naturally, strongly in favour of anything that proves that the banana has special dietetic or therapeutic values. For this reason I was delighted with the article in The Gleaner on Tuesday, April 6th (sic) by Hugh I. Martin, who gave a long list of the good things that a banana a day can do for you. But we all have mixed feelings about Mr. Martin's suggestion that bananas increase fertility..."
"Mind you nothing contributes more effectively to the sales of a food or drink than the claim that it can increase fertility or potency. -Perhaps if we could prove the effectiveness of the banana, not only as an aid to fertility but as a mild aphrodisiac, this would solve our present problem of over production on the English market, (emphasis mine) and induce the middle-aged rake to change his tune from 'Have a Madeira, my dear' to 'Have a banana'.."
BANANA EXPORTS
Our present problem of over production on the English Market? This was 1965, remember. Banana exports then amounted to 190,000 tonnes. Last year we exported 39,896 tonnes to the UK, struggling since the early 1970s to meet our quota that had then fallen to 105,000 tonnes. More recently the WTO's ruling on the European Union's banana regime has ensured that we will never again achieve those export figures. How things have changed in these less than 40 years.
But it was Wright's second point that made that column so interesting in retrospect. He went on:
"Mr. Michael Manley has observed that we have, perhaps, tied up too much of our best lands in cane, and that there are other crops that could be grown with greater benefit. Many people would agree with him. Sometime ago, I read a most learned and interesting paper by the veterinarian, Dr. Barry Nestle, on the subject of cattle-rearing in Jamaica. Dr. Nestle maintained that Jamaica is among the finest grass-growing countries of the world; and he took the view that the dairy industry, properly run, could be more profitable than any other crop that we now grow." (My emphasis). Wright went on to suggest that the livestock industry was the best bet for Jamaica's long-term development.
1965 again, remember? Sugar production was 514,825 tonnes that year. We had no problems selling all of it at a very good price to boot. Seven years later Mr. Manley was Prime Minister and began to see sugar from a different angle. By then production had fallen significantly to 384,040 tonnes and the expatriate owners and managers were not finding it as profitable as it once was and decided to shut it down. A good time as any to put in those other more profitable crops wouldn't you think? The Government though, in its first bailout, acquired what was the major portion of the industry in the name of the workers and the struggle to keep it going has been on since. The effort to grow other crops through the Food Farms and Land Lease programmes proved unsustainable.
FALLING PRODUCTION
It must be remembered however, that of the 18 sugar factories that operated in the 1960s only seven are in production today and the acreage in cane has fallen also from over 60,000 hectares to below 40,000 in 2002. Hardly any of that land taken out of cane has been put into other crops or livestock. Most can be found either idle or in hotels and housing estates. We shouldn't really be too surprised at the falling production.
And what of the dairy industry? Contrary to the predictions of Thomas Wright and Dr. Nestle the dairy industry has failed to become the winner they thought it could be, falling victim to the new "colonising" strategy Free Trade. What is most interesting about it all is that sugar, in spite of its problems, still remains a viable entity even though, with a 2003 record low production of 153,500 tonnes, the calls for its phasing out are as loud today as they were half a century ago. The question must obviously be what has caused this unbelievable decline in productivity. Mr. Mark Brooks believes it is due to "sick soil". We plan to examine that next time.
Hugh Martin is a communication specialist and farm broadcaster. E-mail: humar@cwjamaica.com.
