Hugh Martin
I HAVE been away from this column for a little while and I must thank the Editor for allowing me the break which was unavoidable. My apologies to the numerous persons who have accused me of denying them what they considered a valuable source of information on the agricultural sector. It is flattering to be missed, and in resuming I do hope that I'll be able to continue meeting their expectations.
There have been some quite interesting developments in
the agricultural sector over the past few months, most of them unfavourable to farmers and farming interests. The sugar industry dominated the news for a while, first with the European Union's (EU) formal proposal to reduce the price it pays for sugar, and second, with the unbelievably low production for the last crop.
HOT DEBATE
That was still being hotly debated when it was replaced on the front pages by the banana industry following the World Trade Organisation (WTO) ruling against the European Union's 'tariff-only' regime. Euro 230 tariff on Latin bananas was what Agriculture Minister Roger Clarke had earlier said he could live with and was promptly censured for speaking out of turn while negotiations were ongoing.
The WTO found that figure too high and sent the EU back to
the drawing board. The usual exaggerated claims of imminent devastation of the local industry made the headlines and people started demanding that bananas along with sugar be replaced with tomatoes. Fortunately, that load of nonsense was quickly flushed when someone asked the question: if ten acres of tomatoes could produce a glut on the local market, what would 60,000 hectares do?
RESULT OF NEGLECT
It wasn't all bad though, as the pig industry seems to have got its act together at last with the upgrading of the local gene pool and the formation of national and regional producers associations. For decades the industry suffered from the boom and bust syndrome which eventually led to neglect in breeding programmes. The result of this neglect was inbreeding and deterioration in the quality of the product. The establishment of a pig industry development committee, led by Dr. Keith Amiel, has begun to show positive results.
Another development that presented more than a glimmer of hope for the agricultural sector was the move recently to prepare a national plan for the revitalising of the cattle sub-sector. This is being led by the Jamaica Livestock Association (JLA), in association with the Ministry of Agriculture and the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation in Agriculture (IICA). Following a study commissioned by the JLA which found that Jamaica's cattle population had declined by 50 per cent of what it was in 1990, a workshop involving stakeholders in all the areas of the beef and dairy industries was held in September to seek consensus on the way forward. This was achieved and the recommendations agreed on are being included in the national plan of action that is expected to be ready any time now.
EXODUS
But what has caused such a massive decline in this sub-sector that once brought us international recognition through the highly acclaimed work of the late Dr. T. P. Lecky? The JLA study revealed that there was an exodus of small and medium-scale farmers and substantial cut-backs on large farms resulting in a shortfall in the supply of local beef, loss in rural employment and increases in consumer prices for beef and milk. At the same time, farm gate prices have been persistently low while input costs have escalated. In other words, cattle farmers have been losing their shirts and those who remained are there simply because they can't find a buyer.
The amazing thing about all this is the fact that the price for beef in the meat shops has moved up considerably over the past year or so, especially since the appearance of mad cow disease in the United States and the ban on imports from that source. The increased demand which has been aided also by the debunking of the red meat bogey has resulted in the rapid depletion of the beef cattle population as farmers, in trying to cash in, are selling their breeding stock.
The common view among the participants at the workshop last month was that the industry can be saved only by a massive infusion of capital to fund the expansion of the national herd through importation, a pasture development programme and a modern abattoir/processing plant to facilitate export. An innovative approach to achieve these objectives was introduced to the farmers by IICA and the national plan of action will be based on this approach. We will return to these topics anon.
Hugh Martin is a communication consultant and farm broadcaster at humar@cwjamaica.com.
