Byron McDaniel, Gleaner Writer

Walderston, Manchester:

The Jamaica Agricultural Society (JAS), which is celebrating Farmers' Month in April, is wooing students of science and technology to the agricultural sector.

Join the agricultural sector

President of the JAS, Senator Norman Grant, who was addressing a symposium last Tuesday at the Northern Caribbean University (NCU) in Mandeville, Manchester, encouraged science and technology students at the university to come into the agricultural sector.

"If we do not embrace a sector that feeds us, we are undermining our very existence," Senator Grant stressed, adding that for too long we have treated agriculture as the Cinderella of the Jamaican economy while first world countries place the sector on the 'front-burner'.

"I want to place on this university's agenda a greater focus on the recruitment of students in the field of agriculture and the environment."

He, however, noted that the proposal was not confined to NCU, but all the universities. "I am challenging not only NCU, but UWI and the College of Agriculture, Science and Education. We need to establish a task force to research as to how we can get science and technology to drive agriculture."