John Myers Jr., Agriculture Coordinator
RECLAIMING AGRICULTURE
Today we launch our special 12-month coverage of agriculture, a vital part of the Jamaican economy.
This is a sector which employs thousands, a sector which has the potential to help transform our rural economy and which can create vast opportunities for new jobs. But this is an industry which does not get the attention it deserves.
Henry Rainford, head of the Jamaica Livestock Association, feels that "agriculture is an area in which we can solve a lot of the social problems that we have in this country; the drift of the rural population into the city, and all these young people who are idle out there. We have idle lands and idle hands, we need to find the formula to put them to work."
Jamaica Agricultural Society president Senator Norman Grant believes that as a country "we need to have a process where we attract younger people into the sector, and that is going to come by making agriculture very attractive."
Over the next 12 months we hope to highlight these and other issues, at the same time putting possible solutions in the public arena for discussion and action in our quest to achieve lasting rural development.
Agriculture is a sector that we must transform if we are to achieve significant rural development and create the environment for a better standard of living for more of our people.
ALREADY BURDENED by the cost of damage sustained from several natural disasters, praedial larceny and inadequate infrastructure, stakeholders in the agricultural sector are gearing up to intensify their lobby for Government to remove the general consumption tax (GCT) on agricultural inputs and equipment.
They have been bemoaning the reimposition of the tax, which they say, has been severely hindering the development of the sector. They complain that the tax, which was increased from 15 per cent to 16.5 per cent in 2005, was too much for a an industry that has been severely traumatised.
INTENSIFIED LOBBYING
President of the Jamaica Agricultural Society (JAS), Senator Norman Grant, in outlining his organisation's plan of action for 2006, said there "will be an intensification of our lobbying ... to ask the Government to remove the GCT from the farm equipment, (and to provide) special tax incentives for companies that invest in the rural areas by building factories that will process agricultural produce".
He said the JAS, in partnership with the Jamaica Manufacturers' Association (JMA), will also be lobbying "commercial banks to lower interest rates to the agricultural and manufacturing sector, to get government to accept and implement our proposal for establishing an Agricultural Development Fund for Jamaica (and) to have focus on infrastructure improvement such as roads, water and electricity".
Allan Rickards, president of the All-Island Jamaica Cane Farmers Association, promised agitation this year: "We believe that there must be a signal from government to the productive and agriculture sectors by way of infrastructural incentives (such as lowering the) cost of interest rates and expenses (such as GCT) that should be removed," he said.
Unlike their tourism counterparts, who lobbied successfully to have the tax reduced by half, Mr. Rickards and fellow agriculturalists said they have not been successful in having the tax reduced or removed and the government, so far, has not budged.
He lamented that the imposition of the GCT has not only increased the cost of producing sugar cane, but is also preventing farmers from investing more in modern and efficient equipment. He warned that if the tax is not removed, sugar cane farmers might be forced to stop farming.
"If you add 16.5 per cent to the cost of producing cane you will see that it is already a significant increase," Mr. Rickards noted. He explained that half the cost of growing and harvesting sugar cane is consumed in acquiring and maintaining vehicles and equipment. "GCT was made payable not only on equipment, transportation and so on, but also on fertilisers and chemicals," he added.
Following the reimposition of the tax by the government, agricultural products, equipment and now the haulage of sugar cane and sugar have been subjected to GCT. This, he said, has significantly increased the operational costs of the farmers.
But sugar cane farmers feel that they have been hit the hardest because in addition to paying 16.5 per cent GCT on the cost of spare parts to repair vehicles, equipment and on the cost of inputs, they also have to pay 16.5 per cent GCT on the cost to haul their cane to the factories for processing as well as an additional two per cent cess on imported products and equipment.
Mark Kerr-Jarrett, a former sugar cane farmer and president of the Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce, speaking at a function last year, said when the GCT is added "it compounds out at over 19 per cent, and in some instances, as much as 27 per cent." His family has since abandoned the sugar industry.
According to agricultural consultant Cordia Thompson, high input costs are also adversely affecting the productivity of many farmers. Pointing to a United States Agency for International Development's (USAID) Jamaica Business Recovery Programme, which assisted several poultry farmers in restarting production after Hurricane Ivan, Ms. Thompson said many of them were unable to purchase the required amount of feed due to the high cost.
"I think that they really need to reconsider (the tax on) inputs and as long as you are a farmer, they probably need to also look at concessions as far as GCT is concerned with regards to utilities," she said.
