By Robert Hart, Parliamentary ReporterFARMERS YESTERDAY welcomed Wednesday's passage of the Agricultural Produce Amendment Bill in the House of Representatives.
The controversial Bill was passed in an anti-climactic end to discussions on legislation that are geared towards combating the age-old problem of praedial larceny and which have been 12 years in the making.
"It is a welcome turn. Although as far as I'm concerned, it has taken long in coming," Dundee Hewitt, president of the South Manchester Sweet Potato Growers' Association, told The Gleaner yesterday.
"I'm only sorry it wasn't passed 30 years ago," Jeremiah Harrison, chairman of the Christiana Irish Potato Growers' Association, added. "I hope they will carry it out now because implementation is the only thing we have left to see."
THREE AMENDMENTS
Nearing the conclusion of Wednesday's sitting of the House, members met in a committee of the entire House to consider three amendments to the legislation, before passing the Bill. The vote brought an end to the debate started last month by Roger Clarke, Minister of Agriculture.
In June, the Opposition argued against certain provisions in the Bill, saying the proposed amendments as presented to the House had been 'over-engineered' and would 'open the door for bribery and rascality'.
At the conclusion of presentations in the debate last month, Dr. Peter Phillips, Leader of the House of Representatives, proposed that members be given time to receive and examine copies of both the current Act and the amended Bill before putting the legislation to a vote.
REQUIREMENT FOR LICENSING
On Wednesday, Minister Clarke said he was satisfied that most of the Opposition's concerns were addressed by the Act. But among the amendments he accepted was the removal of a requirement for licensing (as agricultural traders) of persons carrying produce for domestic use. The livestock schedule was also amended to include dogs as earlier suggested by Opposition member Dr. St. Aubyn Bartlett.
Yesterday Mr. Hewitt also noted the much-talked about receipt book system to be implemented under the legislation. "Just recently they caught goat thieves in Manchester with receipt books of their own contrivance," he said while pointing out that the upcoming distribution of receipt books by the Jamaica Agricultural Society (JAS) would act as a deterrent to thieves. This, he noted, would require the co-operation and support of all agencies involved in the new system.
Earlier this month, angry farmers attending the 109th annual general meeting of the JAS, accused parliamentarians of dragging their feet over the Bill while they were losing millions of dollars to thieves.
