A.W. SangsterJAMAICA HAS for many centuries been a traditional agricultural country. The early plantation system with its slave labour was based on the economy of sugar. That in itself has created a number of problems. These include the utilisation of significant tracts of flat arable land for sugar production, the one-crop culture, and the fact that the large estates, often foreign-owned, have created a monopoly of ownership to the exclusion of the emerging local farmers.
In addition, the land in sugar production does not have enough rest or enough crop rotation, both of which are essential to good farming practice. Specific pathogens have therefore become entrenched in sugar cane lands and the industry has had to resort to continual changes in varieties or the heavy use of chemicals to combat the problems. The production of sugar, whether judged by the output of tons of cane per acre (or hectare) or by the tons of cane per ton of sugar, has been steadily declining. Jamaica, which at one time produced nearly 500,000 tons of sugar, can now barely do over 200,000 tons though it is fair to say that there is now less land in sugar production.
The specific example of sugar is typical of many other crops where production figures have similarly declined. This trend, coupled with many other problems in agriculture has led to the reduction of farming income and an increasing drift from the land to urban centres. Farming, traditionally a means of livelihood for the poor, has been dismissed by the young as not having a future. The decline has fortuitously been mitigated to some extent by the rise of alternative contributors to the economic landscape.
The emergence of small manufacturing enterprises and the development of the bauxite industry both helped to create a blue collar industrial worker. In addition the rise of the tourist industry has also created another economic alternative. This has far-reaching consequences and the reality is that we seem to be seeing the disappearance of the agricultural sector and with it the capacity to feed ourselves.
This has to be seen in the context of a number of factors. First, agriculture is now increasingly big business and therefore the traditional role of the small farmer is being sidelined by economies of scale, production efficiency and the challenge of the global market-place. Thus the traditional small farmer can no longer compete and is being increasingly marginalised. The small farmer will continue to see his or her production as a means of family food survival rather than as a formal income earner.
We will need to find other means of economic survival or develop a new approach to agriculture in terms of the maximisation of space with new technologies such as hydroponic farming, organic farming and solar technologies. Secondly, the global market-place has created new agendas for trade and related aid. Traditional subsidies provided by the colonial powers are being aggressively challenged by other nations under the umbrella of the WTO. The rules of trade are often unfair to developing countries and it is interesting to read of trade Minister Anthony Hylton stridently attacking the European Union and the WTO for its latest attempt to help the poorest of the poor nations.
Minister Hylton is correct in stating that the new policy of "anything but arms" entry to the European Union by the poorest 48 countries is essentially going to hurt the middle poor countries without the developed countries making any real concessions. Thirdly, traditional eating practices have been changing and Jamaicans are eating more and more imported food, much of it being junk food. The pressures of life and the increasing access to fast food markets have in many ways changed our eating habits.
Fourthly, the scourge of praedial larceny has taken its toll on the farming community. A farmer can very well be wiped out by a gang with a truck who plunder his fields one evening often at gunpoint. All the above factors are a major challenge to the agricultural sector and in the long run to the country as a whole. For the decimation of the agricultural sector is no longer a matter which we can conveniently ignore.
The fundamental issue that has to be put on the table is that of food security. Our purchase of foreign food is in essence providing employment and a subsidy to the farmers of other countries. In addition it is only through the major economic alternatives of bauxite, remittances and tourism that we have been able to afford the massive foreign food purchases. The argument about subsidies needs to be carefully analysed. Clearly many members of the farming community cannot continue as they have traditionally done, to expect the Government to provide a subsidy all the way. At the same time the disparity that exists between the inflated salaries of the financial sector, which has been very extensively subsidised at taxpayers' expense and the subsidies offered to the farming community cannot be ignored.
Many of these issues will be debated at a seminar to be hosted by the Farquharson Institute on Saturday, March 17 at UTech. Contact at 978-6574 or farquharsoninstitute@yahoo.com.
A.W. Sangster is former president of the University of Technology.
