Hugh Martin
MR. ARTHUR LAWSON, 86-year-old farmer out of Westmoreland, last month retired from the Jamaica Agricultural Society's board of management after a 16-year stint. He was honoured by the JAS for his over 60 years of service to the farming sector. An outspoken and passionate speaker, Mr. Lawson came to national prominence because of his relentless advocacy at every JAS annual meeting, for an effective praedial larceny programme. It was therefore rather surprising that in his acceptance speech he did not comment on the programme which is about to begin. This is the Agricultural Produce Act which is based on the use of receipt books 100,000 of which have been printed and are ready for distribution. Instead he chose to depart the scene with a plea for what he claimed was the only incentive that can save the small farmer: low interest rates.
This, of course, is not new. As far back as the early 1990s when the interest rate on agricultural credit began its upward spiral starting at 21 per cent, the leaders of a number of farming organisations came together to form the Farm Leaders Lobby. The objective was to influence the Government to roll back the rates or witness the death of the sector. Well, they had very little success and thus began the decline in agricultural production. The cattle sub-sector has been virtually wiped out and all the major export crops are now just struggling to stay alive. The Farmers Lobby Group faltered and died and investment dried up in the sector.
CALL FOR GOV'T ASSISTANCE
In more recent times, with the support of The Gleaner's Reclaiming Agriculture series, the leaders have again come forward with their call for Government assistance to kick-start the sector. They believe this can be achieved by lowering interest rates on agricultural credit and removing GCT on certain production inputs. This time around the Government has responded as the new Prime Minister, Mrs. Portia Simpson Miller, has not only declared agriculture one of her administration's top priorities but has demonstrated her sincerity by her budget provisions.
The first indication of this resolve was the strengthening of the Ministry of Agriculture by returning to it the portfolios of land and irrigation water and the increase of its budget allocations by 58 per cent. The second was the announced removal of GCT on certain farming inputs by Finance Minister Omar Davies when he made his budget presentation. But what should leave absolutely no doubt in anyone's mind about the seriousness of the Prime Minister's resolve to move agricultural and rural development forward was her own announcement of a collaboration with Scotiabank to launch a fund providing loans to small farmers at 7.865 per cent per annum.
INADEQUATE FUNDS
The Scotiabank initiative which has a total of $600 million, is a welcome pool of funds that can be employed to start the revival of the rural economy. Agricultural production has been declining not because farmers lack the know-how but simply because they have lacked the funds to inject at the critical points of their operations. When a field needs four bags of fertiliser and the farmer can afford only two, the returns from that field are going to be less than 50 per cent of what it would be had it received the required amount. The same thing goes for all the other inputs which already cost him more than they do his United States competitor who is not required to pay more than two per cent on his loans. He will no doubt see this as a move in the right direction but will expect that for real growth to take place, more needs to be done.
Hugh Martin is a communication consultant and farm broadcaster at humarcwjamaica.com.
