Curbing glut
ST ELIZABETH farmers have again found themselves in a glut. With no pesky beet army worm to contend with and mostly good weather this year, farm yields have exploded.
The problems of plenty have often frustrated the agriculture-producing powerhouse, arguably the most productive area of the country, known as the Breadbasket.
Bumper harvests signal low prices for farmers and despair for their families. For example, it has been reported that crops like tomatoes and lettuce are being dumped for ridiculously low prices. But it’s the market’s way of balancing supply and demand.
It was such a glut that triggered the Ministry of Agriculture’s farmers’ market initiative a few years back, which saw farmers taking their produce to urban centres. Consumers were happy to buy produce at reduced prices, and the farmers got the goods off their hands.
However, while the bumper harvest helps bring down prices for consumers, the benefits of lower prices to the economy are muted because farmers’ earnings become depressed. If farmers are unable to buy fertiliser and other farm supplies, their pain is eventually extended across the entire agricultural sector.
USE MODERN TOOLS
Curbing yields and breathing new life into prices must be a priority of the agriculture ministry. We believe the onus is on the Rural Agricultural Development Authority to develop modern tools of analysis to help guide farmers about crop choice and the market dynamics of supply and demand. We must avoid the cobweb phenomenon so named to describe boosting production on the premise of pre-existing demand and prices. Market surveys and assessments should guide choices rather than following blindly and investing in crops that were in demand last year.
As it appears to us, there is too much guesswork in farming, and this is why it is so difficult to connect farmers with useful market information from one season to the next.
Practical solutions to glut are needed to help farmers decide on diversification and to assist them in getting their goods to market. There was a time when the Agricultural Marketing Corporation (AMC) on Spanish Town Road was abuzz with activity as produce from all over the country was being packaged for import. The AMC complex still exists at 188 Spanish Town Road, but its role is now to provide exporters with warehouse space, chill room, plug-in systems and office space.
In 2009, the Agro-Investment Corporation (AgroInvest) was formed from the merger of the Agriculture Development Corporation and the Agriculture Support Services Project. Agro-Invest has a mandate to “mobilise, finance and facilitate investment in the agricultural sector”.
Based on the frustrated cries of the farmers, it may be a good time to review the ministry’s marketing role in keeping with its well-publicised campaign to ‘eat what we grow, grow what we eat’. New imagination is definitely needed to help this sector that is plagued by glut.
Agriculture Minister Audley Shaw has taken on his new role with his usual gusto, and many admire the way he has settled into his job. His rallying call for more persons to acquire land and get into farming may ring hollow and sour the expectations of prospective farmers who see only those who are unable to eke out a living because there is no market for their crops.
For the survival of our farmers and to create the desired stability in rural communities, the most immediate need is to assist hard-working farmers to get their produce to market.