By Dr. Paul Ivey, ContributorFIRST KNOWLEDGE-BASED INDUSTRY
AGRICULTURE IS regarded by some thinkers as the first knowledge-based industry, because, in making the transition from "hunting and gathering" to domestication of crops and animals, Homo sapiens were involved in the systematic application of accumulated knowledge. It follows therefore that, far from being a "backwater" occupation, agriculture is the application of science in its truest sense. However, in Jamaica, agriculture is indeed treated as a backwater industry. To be sure, lip service is paid as to how it is the "backbone of the economy" and that it is important for a country to be able to "feed itself".
SHUNNED BY OUR "BRIGHTEST
AND BEST"
Our "brightest and best" students shun agriculture like the plague. If you doubt me just listen to the students on TVJ's Schools' Challenge Quiz enumerating their ambitions in terms of the careers they wish to pursue. I am yet to hear one of them declare a desire to study agriculture.
I recently attended a well-organised and well-attended Career Fair for High School Students. The focus was on careers in Science and Technology. The organisers prepared a booklet for all the participating students, one section of which had synopses of the different careers. Under Agriculture & Food Industry, the following was written, "professionals in agriculture can be found in three major roles direct involvement in the production process, research, training, advisory services, and administration. These roles are not mutually exclusive, and many persons shift focus at different stages of their career." Not only does this description say little or nothing, but it was the shortest entry among the other careers, which were described.
In fact, when the presentation on agriculture was being given, students from the traditional, brand-name High Schools were not in the room, having opted to attend other concurrent presentations on other careers. All is not lost because we at CASE intend to change this perception by showing that a career in agriculture has the potential to create wealth, reward & honour personal scientific achievement.
THE SLAVERY NEXUS
Slave society in Jamaica, and of course the rest of the Caribbean, was built around agriculture sugarcane growing for sugar production. The life of a slave on a sugar cane plantation was wretched and brutal. One simply has to take a peak into Thomas Thistlewood's diaries to get an insight into the horrible nightmare experienced by the enslaved Africans.
I choose Thistlewood because it is information from the horse's mouth, so to speak. Upon the abolition of slavery, the ex-enslaved Africans repaired to the hillsides to eke out a living by tilling the soil. Still others continued working on the plantations. Thus, we had in Jamaica two agricultural systems: plantation agriculture (gentleman farmer) and subsistence (small farmer) agriculture. I submit that associating agriculture with slavery is a psychological hurdle we have not yet overcome in Jamaica.
NO EDUCATION NECESSARY
FOR AGRICULTURE
With the pre- and post-emancipation education system designed to prepare a few elites for white collar jobs, the rest of the population descendants of enslaved Africans were non-educated to provide "labour" for the plantations. With their non-education, lack of capital and hillside tracts of land, small-farmer agriculture in Jamaica relied on traditional knowledge, myths and luck. To be a small farmer means backbreaking work and meagre returns, if any.
Our education system has reinforced the view that one does not really need a good education, if any at all, to be involved in agriculture. In many of our Secondary Schools, students deemed not to be "bright", are directed by their teachers to the pursuit of agriculture as the only other "suitable option". Of course, this is not meant to be anything other than a rubric under which to "file" them until they "graduate". If only the "dunces" are encouraged to pursue careers in agriculture and our "brightest and best" are not, then our future will continue to be bleak.
IMAGE IS EVERYTHING
Images of farmers portrayed in the media are quite telling, and disappointing. The Gleaner of Saturday, April 12, 2000, carried the pictures of Ezekiah "Zeeki" Moody, a cane cutter, and farmer, Pearl Wallace. Moody is shown with his "bill" in hand, and wearing a back-brace. "Zeeki" is reported as not wanting any of his children to follow in his footsteps because "they have good education, they must look better job". It is difficult to imagine a youth of the "Global Internet Age" stepping into Moody's shoes!
Dr. Paul Ivey, Vice President, HRM & Administration, College of Agriculture, Science & Education (CASE).
