THE DENBIGH Agricultural and Industrial Show has for long been a major event in our Independence celebrations. With the re-introduction of the Emancipation Day holiday on August 1 and the fixing of Independence Day on August 6, it has managed to straddle the awkward interval created and still achieve satisfactory patronage. The 52nd staging last weekend seemed to have attained a high level of attendance especially on the last two days.
Pre-show promotion by the organisers, the Jamaica Agricultural Society, promised a bigger and better show than ever before. It appears they achieved their goal, at least in the area of dimension. There is no denying the Jamaican people's desire for show and spectacle and the Denbigh Show has over the years offered them that. However, the high level of criticism of this year's offering suggests that the promise of a better show was not kept. One of the major causes for concern was the preponderance of vendors of plastic goods that made it difficult for show-goers to move around. People go to Denbigh to see beautiful agricultural exhibits, impressive looking livestock on display, new technologies so they can learn something and, ultimately, to be entertained. The presence of these vendors could produce the unfortunate appearance of a large flea market.
The JAS must be careful that this situation is controlled in the future. Notwithstanding those irritations there was a welcome improvement in the livestock presentation over last year's show as cattle farmers returned to the show ring. We see this as a signal that the cattle industry, having suffered a serious decline over several years, is on the rebound. The ban on beef imports from the USA last year as a result of the discovery of Mad Cow Disease in one state no doubt played some part in the recovery. However, it was the gradual increase in demand for beef prior to that event which sparked the upward trend and which will make it sustainable. Even more delightful were the magnificent breeds of goats on display. The Ministry of Agriculture and the Goat Breeders Society must be commended for the excellent work being done in the development of our small livestock but most specifically our goat industry.
Perhaps as more attention is paid to the pig industry through the pig development project announced earlier by Agriculture Minister Roger Clarke in his Sectoral Debate presentation, that sector will also receive the same degree of success.
Similarly, against the background of the passage of the Agricultural Produce Amendment Bill, farmers who mounted creative displays of fruits and vegetables in the Parish pavilions this year, will be encouraged to continue ploughing back into the sector. They now have more reason to hope that the produce they have planted will be reaped by them and sold for their families, employees and community benefit, and not the usual parasitic praedial thieves.
This year the farmers did themselves proud and demonstrated that Agriculture is very much alive and doing well. But better must come when the newly enacted legislation to fight praedial larceny is transplanted from paper to the farms to uproot this major scourge of the sector.
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