Golding promises local farmers to flourish under new PNP administration
Published:Friday | January 24, 2025 | 12:06 AMLeon Jackson/Gleaner Writer
Western Bureau:
With the People’s National Party (PNP) ramping up its campaign ahead of the next general election, which is constitutionally due by September, Opposition Leader Mark Golding says the party plans to unveil several initiatives aimed at improving the lives of Jamaicans.
Golding, who was speaking during a recent spot meeting at Water Square in Falmouth, Trelawny, told party supporters that, based on plans the party will be rolling out, the tourism and agriculture sectors, two of the main pillars in the parish’s economy, will be overhauled to offer residents greater benefits.
“Tourism is a major earner for the country’s economy, but this earning has not gone down to the people like the craft traders. A PNP Government will fix that,” said Golding, who is promising that, under a PNP administration, the craft traders who are struggling to generate a meaningful income, despite the large number of cruise ships docking in that town, will see better days.
With Trelawny not having any major attraction, despite attracting thousands of cruise passengers weekly, the craft traders are the only real beneficiaries of the cruise earnings, as most of the passengers are transported out of the parish to attractions such as Dunn’s River Falls in St Ann.
While noting the importance of agriculture to the national economy, Golding said the farmers in Trelawny can look forward to helping them to perform at their optimum, which will ultimately strengthen the nation’s food security.
“We believe in agriculture, we believe in farming, we believe in agro-industry. Farmers need to have an easier access to credit. We will revamp the People’s Co-operative Bank so that farmers can get money to invest in their business,” said Golding, who hopes the PNP’s policy will incentivise disgruntled farmers to stay in agriculture.
“Storage facilities must be made available to farmers so that they do not have to dump their crops or drop the price to ridiculous levels when there is excess,” added Golding.
According to Golding, who is hoping that his party will wrestle the two Trelawny seats from the governing Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) in the next general election, Jamaica is ranked right alongside the top countries in terms of producing quality food crops.
“We have the best ginger, the best scallion, the best coffee and the best ganja. There must be systems put in place to maximise the foreign exchange earned from these crops,” said Golding.
As it relates to ganja, investor Paul Burke, of the Ganja Growers Association, while he believes Colombia and California, and not Jamaica, have the best ganja, he believes that, for Jamaica to maximise of ganja production, the Dangerous Drugs Act must be reviewed to open better opportunities for prospective farmers.
“There is too wide a gap between the regulated and the unregulated growers. To charge US$10,000 for a licence will do nothing to get more regulated growers into the business. That is a place to start,” said Burke.