By Dionne Rose, Staff ReporterANGRY FARMERS called urgently at yesterday's 109th annual general meeting of the Jamaica Agricultural Society, for Parliament to pass immediately, the Agricultural Produce Amendment Bill, which is being amended to assist in the fight against praedial larceny.
They argued that parliamentarians were dragging their feet over the Bill while they were losing millions of dollars to thieves. With the support of several of his colleague, Arthur Lawson, a farmer from St. Elizabeth, accused the Jamaica Labour Party of being the major culprit in the holding up of the Bill.
"Politics and agriculture don't mix and it is time that the opposition stop playing politics while (at the) same time damaging the lives of the farmers," he said, to cheers from his colleagues at the Jamaica Conference Centre, Duke Street, downtown Kingston.
Mr. Lawson argued that the lack of urgency to speed the Bill through the Houses of Parliament showed the level of consideration the legislature had for farmers. "We are counted as fifth-class citizens of this country. We need to tell the politicians that the farmers cannot take it any longer," he said.
VERY IMPATIENT
Supporting the call, Senator Norman Grant, president of the JAS, said, "We have been very impatient at the pace at which it is taking to pass the Bill. While we worry about receipt books, the farmers are losing $4 billion a year to praedial thieves."
He said that "Everything we can do from the JAS's point of view has been done. The only thing that we are waiting on is for the Bill to be passed. Enough is enough, we want the Bill passed. He who feels it, knows it and it is the farmers who are feeling it."
The Agricultural Produce Amendment Bill was referred to a parliamentary committee for restructuring after its debate was once again suspended over the controversial receipt book system to be introduced to monitor the sale of livestock and produce.
Some of the arguments put forward by the JLP were that the Bill was "ill-conceived and would cause more problems than it would solve", and that the Bill was "over-engineered" and would "open the door for bribery and rascality".
Another concern raised at the JAS meeting was the lack of infrastructure to support farming.
A young female farmer from St. Elizabeth related her plight caused by the lack of water in the farming community of Round Hill. Pleading for help for the area, she said, "We need water, we need to see the Minister of Water. I have to buy water two times a week to water my produce".
Other farmers called for urgent rehabilitation of farm roads. Addressing some of the concerns raised by the farmers, Errol Ennis, Minister of State for Agriculture, who representing Roger Clarke, the minister, said the Government was working to address the problem of bad farm roads.
He said the Government would be going to international lending institutions to borrow money to rehabilitate 900 miles of farm roads and this, he said, was expected to cost $2 billion to $3 billion.
