The Editor, Sir:

The Jamaica Agricultural Society (JAS) has intensified its fight against praedial larceny and has completed the printing of approximately 100,000 receipt books for distribution to farmers over the next four months. The process of distribution will be intensified through the 'Praedial Larceny Road Shows' that will be staged by the JAS in collaboration with RADA and the ISCF. These shows commenced on December 14, 2006, in the district of Top Hill in the parish of St. Elizabeth. It was a most successful start. The shows will run to March 30, 2007, with the objective to inform, education and implement.

I note that farmers all over the world are suffering at the hands of farm thieves; one of the front page articles from USA TODAY of Monday, December 4, 2006, stated:

"In a rising wave of rural larceny, thieves are tracking commodity prices to steal everything that grows, plows or sprinkles on the USA's farms."

Biggest problems

California, the number one state in agricultural production, reports the biggest problems. Theft rings that kept police busy last year chasing stolen artichokes, pomegranates and diesel fuel switched this year to nuts, avocados, citrus, tractors, irrigation pipe and copper wiring, says Bill Yoshimoto, the supervising prosecutor for a 13- county Central California task force on farm crime.

The task force arrested two men in a Sacramento warehouse November 26 on suspicion of possessing 136,000 pounds of stolen almonds and walnuts valued at US$403,000. The bust supplied leads in theft this year of 14 truckloads of processed nuts worth US$2 million, says Detective Vince Gallagher of the Merced County Sheriff's Department.

The nuts were in 40-foot shipping containers ready for export. Only two containers were stolen in the area in 2005, Yoshimoto says. "Rural thievery is increasing year by year," Yoshimoto says.

"In areas far from the cities, farm are often wide-open targets after dark, with nothing more than a fence on an isolated road barring criminals from bins of harvested crops," says Danielle Rau, director of rural crime prevention for the California Farm Bureau Federation.

In Alabama and other South-eastern States with vast pine forests, the leading theft problem is illegal timber-cutting, according to police reports.

In Minnesota, Ohio and elsewhere, thieves siphon anhydrous ammonia, a fertiliser that can be used to make methamphetamine, from farmers' tanks.

Other targets include ginseng in Michigan, Japanese radishes in Hawaii and irrigation valves in Washington State.

Food supply under attack

The thefts are "putting our food supply under attack," says California State Senator Jeff Denham, a Republican from the Central Valley.

No national statistics are kept on rural thefts, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the American Farm Bureau Federation. Yoshimoto estimates that crops and equipment worth $1 billion will be stolen nationwide this year.

Research shows that farmers report only one in 10 thefts, he says. Reported thefts in the Central Valley totalled nearly US$9 million in 2006, indicating US100 million in actual theft there, he says.

Thieves check commodity prices when deciding what to go after, Yoshimoto says.

The above underpins the importance of the fight against praedial larceny by the Island Special Constabulary Force, Ministry of Agriculture and Lands and the Jamaica Agricultural Society. This is everybody's business as our farmers just cannot survive any longer under this onslaught.

I wish to take this opportunity to ask our farmers to purchase the receipt books, to register with the Rural Development Authority and give the system a chance to work, and if we as farmers fail to do this, we have no one to blame but ourselves.

Passionate plea

For additional information please contact the Praedial Larceny Desk at the Jamaica Agricultural Society, 922-0610-2 or 948-2901. I make this passionate plea. The fight against praedial larceny is everyone's business and already it is bearing fruit with the police checking vehicles and charging persons for carrying produce, in particular livestock, without being able to show that they are the owners.

Thank you, Mr. Editor, for assisting in the process of education.

I am, etc.,

SENATOR NORMAN GRANT

cbsnorman@kasnet.com