Minister of Agriculture Dr Christopher Tufton has reiterated the call for more young Jamaicans to consider agriculture as a viable career against the background of an ageing farming population.

Tufton was speaking at the World Food Day National Ceremony and Exhibition at the Manchester High School in Mandeville on Thursday.

"We want to expose you," Tufton told students, pointing out that the average Jamaican farmer is 50 years old. "We hope by doing that, all of you will take agriculture and food production seriously."

School garden

He said the National School Garden Programme was one of the initiatives devised by the Government to encourage young persons to develop an early interest in agriculture, and to learn methods of farming that would also preserve the environment.

"We want in every institution, in every school, a school garden," he said, "We want you to know what it means to grow something, what it means to handle it, to take care of it."

Tufton said it was critical that all persons become engaged in the drive to ensure the country's food security. He stressed that careful attention would have to be paid to the methods employed in the farming process, as the emphasis should not only be to provide food, but to also do so in a manner, which would protect the environment.

Further destruction of the environment, he stated, would automatically complicate the issue of food security.