Westmoreland gearing up to stage its own agricultural show

WESTERN BUREAU:

As Jamaica continues to seek out new ways to address food security, Westmoreland will be joining the parishes staging annual agricultural shows as part of the effort to encourage, motivate and inspire more people to start taking agriculture seriously.

The inaugural Westmoreland Agricultural Show, which is the brainchild of the Westmoreland branch of the Jamaica Agricultural Society (JAS), is slated for May 28, at the Manning’s School, located in the heart of the parish’s capital, Savanna-la-Mar.

“It is our intention for the show to become an annual event geared towards stimulating greater awareness of agriculture and related industries within the parish of Westmoreland, aligned with socio-economic growth,” said Pius Lacan, chairman of the show’s planning committee.

According to Lacan, the show will be looking to inspire the youngsters in the parish to see agriculture as a worthwhile endeavour through which they can create a career.

“Part proceeds of the show will go towards the development of the Youth in Agriculture programmes in Westmoreland,” added Lacan.

The show, which will be staged under the banner, ‘Grow Smart, Eat Smart’, will have Westmoreland’s Custos the Reverend Hartley Perrin, a strong advocate of creating workable training and employment opportunities for young people in the parish, as its patron.

For many years, Perrin has been an unwavering voice in calling for new and innovative ways to inspire young people in the western parish to become legitimately engaged to create a buffer against the intruding of vices such as the illicit lottery scam, which has created a platform for murder and mayhem across western Jamaica.

“I am all for creating legitimate opportunity for our young people because we must give them an alternative to get-rich-quick schemes like lottery scamming, which is behind many of the murders in this part of the island,” Perrin once told a Gleaner Editors’ Forum. “We cannot continue to lose our young people to these illegal schemes; we must create legitimate options.”

The Westmoreland Agricultural Show, which has got the blessing of the JAS and prominent stakeholders in the parish, will have its official launch at a press conference at Hotel Commingle in Savanna-la-Mar, on April 21.