Dionne Rose, Parliamentary Reporter
JOHNSON
OPPOSITION SPOKESMAN on Agriculture, Senator Anthony Johnson, has recommended that the Government use overseas financial assistance and local scientists to set the agricultural sector on the path to growth.
Sen. Johnson made the recommendation while making his contribution to the State of the Nation Debate in the Senate on Friday.
He said the sector was not competitive because, in most products, the country was producing a fifth of the product yields of other countries.
"This has kept our farmers poor and our agricultural exports at a low ebb," Sen. Johnson said.
He said the Government should first identify the diseases likely to attack the plants or animals before planting and take preventive action.
"Our habit is to wait for the disease, then we take corrective action. This is the wrong approach. We have the scientific expertise in Jamaica to use the preventative approach but we lack the will and the vision to put our scientists and technologists to work," he said.
Sen. Johnson said the country lacks a system of continuous scientific monitoring and analysis of its crops to ensure that, if mutation takes place or when a new bug appears, it can respond quickly.
He said the country should go back, through demonstration plots, showing farmers how
proper husbandry can produce high yields. He suggested such plots could be manned by local farmers who are trained and who could be compensated with free material.
LOANS
Sen. Johnson wants the Government to use overseas assistance, research every aspect of production, and then establish trial plots and make loans available to farmers with mandatory insurance.
"I will not deal with the need for loans at concessional rates," he said. "Farmers everywhere else get them and the Jamaican farmer is not a magician to be able to compete with 12 per cent loans while the rest of the world gives farmers financing at five per cent or less. Give our farmers a chance!"
