Jamaica can double yam exports, says JAS boss

JAMAICA AGRICULTURAL Society (JAS) President Lenworth Fulton is confident that the country could easily double 2020 yam exports of US$10 million with a strategic shift in farming practices.

“Jamaica has fertile land space and with the right approach, especially through the use of technology, we can increase our production of yams to twice our current output,” said Fulton, a staunch advocate of utilising new technology to improve local farming.

Fulton is of the view that the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA) with its cadre of extension officers should be offering greater assistance to farming, especially in terms of guiding them into diversifying the kinds of yams they produce.

“Over the years, some yams like sweet yam no longer exist at a time when the people abroad are looking forward to a small yam. It is time for farmers to get back to planting the mini set yams,” said Fulton. “The extension officers should have it as part of their mandate to promote mini set yams. The yield is high and the market is ready both locally and abroad,” said Fulton.

He also wants yam farmers to become more environmentally friendly, and as a consequence, he wants to see an end to the practice of cutting down trees to use their limbs as yam sticks.

“To start with, the cutting down of trees affects rainfall and destroys the environment,” said Fulton. “The trees absorb the carbon dioxide and give off oxygen; with fewer trees, we have less oxygen and more poison gas.”

REUSABLE STICKS

As it relates to the yam sticks, Fulton is proposing that these should be created out of plastics which, unlike the yam sticks from the trees, that serve for just one crop, could be reused over several years.

“Research should be done on the viability of plastic sticks. They have a lifespan of at least five years. Look how many trees could be saved over that period,” said Fulton.

Like Fulton, Trelawny native, the Reverend Devere Nugent, who has a keen interest in matters relating to agriculture, believes plastic yam sticks is an idea worth pursuing and wants the Government to consider it.

“We have not been forwardthinking on the use of plastic bottles. The trees of South Trelawny are all gone. Reuse the bottles to make sticks and save the environment,” said Nugent.

Yam farmer Linvern Wright said the idea of creating yam sticks out of plastic is not new as the idea was advanced some years ago but was not followed through.

“It was once promoted but that is gone into file thirteen,” said Wright. “It’s time we get back there. It will save the environment and in the long run reduces the production cost to farmers.”