Agriculture in the balance

THE NEWS that Jamaica is now importing green bananas should serve as shock therapy for the entire agricultural sector, although it represents a mere extension of what has been happening in the sector for quite some time.

What is less known is that for years Jamaica has imported items such as coffee and cocoa for processing, to say nothing of sugar. The same thing applies to vegetables, legumes and animal products. One of the few products to satisfy the local market seems to be watermelon.

The situation raises several questions: How, for example do we hope to convince the world that it should continue giving preference to our primary products such as sugar and banana when we cannot even produce at a level that satisfies local demand. Something seems out of sync when we find it cheaper to buy from our competitors than from ourselves. In fact it smacks of managerial ineptitude - from the policy level to the production line, be it in factory or field.

We should by now be convinced that business as usual in the agricultural sector does not have long to survive. We seem to have forgotten, for example, that when we were a colony the sugar industry flourished substantially because it was integrated, which meant that by and large the same interests owned the estates, the mills, the shipping the refineries and the marketing facilities.

There have been few serious studies aimed at establishing whether ownership of the mere bottom of the industry is a viable proposition.

It is time for an across-the-board assessment of whether most of our agricultural sector, bereft as it has been of technological input, can ever be sustained in today's international environment. We seem to be flogging the horse long after it is clinically dead!

The opinions on this page, except for the above, do not necessarily reflect the views of The Gleaner.

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