Hugh Martin
THE GLEANER'S commitment to provide year-long special coverage to the agricultural sector as set out in its front page statement of Friday, January 13, must rate as potentially the biggest shot in the arm the sector has received in a very long time. It isn't that the sector has received no media attention at all but by and large that attention has mostly been on failures of one sort or the other. The inevitable result of such unbalanced reportage has been the creation of an image of farming as an occupation engaged in by those who can do no better and of the farmer as the untutored country bumpkin walking, machete forever in hand, behind a donkey which seems the more intelligent of the two.
Farmers and farm leaders should welcome this move by The Gleaner which, when their story is told, should help to place them where they rightfully belong - right up there with their counterparts in banking, commerce, medicine and manufacturing. In reality though, quite a few are already there in some cases through their ownership of the banks, firms and plants. The problem with these is that having accumulated their wealth from farming they acquire other professions and assume new personae that are more socially acceptable. Thus Farmer Brown who over a ten-year period expanded his five-acre vegetable farm to thirty with three large broiler chicken houses and a bar and grocery shop on it is now Mr. Brown, businessman and councillor.
EXTREMELY RISKY JOB
It is true that agriculture is hard, gruelling, sometimes even dirty work. It is at all times extremely risky and subject to the vagaries of the weather. And even when the weather is fine and the yields are good all can be lost overnight to the praedial thief. This will no doubt make you wonder why farmers persist in this tough business that carries no status, attracts very little support and is virtually uninsurable. The quick answer is that they don't know any better. The correct answer is that they know that when things go right the rewards are great. And when there is no drought or hurricane or flood and good management is in place they can make a life - if not a killing.
There was a time when the agricultural sector was the main area of growth in the economy. That has not been the case in recent years due to a number of factors some of which were avoidable. The unavoidable ones have really been the few hurricanes and a couple of very severe droughts. The others boil down simply to lack of meaningful support from succeeding administrations especially in the areas of infrastructure, financing and investment incentives.
The Gleaner editorial of January 13 listed a number of crops for which there is great and increasing demand on the international market at premium prices. But production in these crops continues to fall because high input costs exacerbated by the imposition of GCT have reduced the farmers' ability to fund the appropriate amounts required for optimum results. Equally, new investments in promising opportunities have been stifled for the same reasons.
ALL IN ACCORD
The farm leaders whose opinions were highlighted were all in accord on the need for a roll-back on the GCT. If they are able to mount a unified lobby instead of their usual turf-protecting stances, some measure of success will be guaranteed. Governments are known to be very responsive to the show of unity in powerful interest groups. The Gleaner's valuable support is just what is needed to bring about the change in the attitude to and the treatment of this vital part of the productive sector.
Hugh Martin is a communication consultant and farm broadcaster; email: humar@cwjamaica.com.
