Stop paying lip service to agriculture
THE AGRICULTURE sector plays a pivotal role in economic activity in Jamaica as it employs thousands of individuals and forms a major pillar of the island’s economy although some of the industry’s challenges include low productivity, lack of specialisation, a disconnect between the government and farmers and limited sectoral linkages.
To improve the industry’s performance, it is important to analyse the factors that have an impact on the capacity of the agricultural sector, namely:
1. Access to capital
2. Infrastructure and technology
3. Access to markets
4. Inter-sectoral linkages
5. Innovation, research, and development
6. Human resources
7. Safety and security
There is room for improvement in all these areas. However, for this column, I am focusing on the first two: access to capital in addition to infrastructure and technology. Examining these factors would enable us to determine how robust is the local environment for cultivation.
ACCESS TO CAPITAL
Acquiring capital, which includes obtaining land and financing, is a primary factor that impacts the long-term viability of the agriculture industry. By design, farming is a risky venture that requires the expending of significant resources. Altogether, most local farmers have access to land in some form whether through family holdings, formal and informal acquisition, or through government-driven initiatives such as agro parks.
Former permanent secretary in the agriculture ministry, Dr Donovan Stanbury, in a column published last year, wrote that extensive tracts of land acquired through various land-reform programmes are largely underutilised. In fact, of the 1546 hectares leased in November 2015 for the agro parks, only 354 hectares, or 23 per cent, of these farmlands were in production.
Despite this observation, the 2007 Agricultural Census highlighted that 75 per cent of farmers registered on the Agricultural Business Information System (ABIS) owned only 15 per cent of all land being cultivated, with small farms under one hectare being most prevalent.
Therefore, having access to land is not equivalent to having security in land tenure. According to political economist Elinor Ostrom, secure land tenure not only includes retaining access to a physical property. A farmer must also possess the ability to withdraw produce cultivated, manage and determine land usage, exclude unwarranted access and can transfer these rights to other individuals.
Many farmers only demonstrate one or two of these qualities, with limited proof of ownership being the biggest hurdle faced. And yet, providing land titles continues to stall, with successive agriculture ministers promising to rectify this reoccurring issue.
Moreover, making land available through the agro parks programme has also failed to fully address the issue of land insecurity. Jamaica Agriculture Society (JAS) president Lenworth Fulton explained to me in an interview that even though farmers may have access to land through the agro parks, many financial institutions are not willing to provide loans as their land is rented. This limits their opportunities for expansion.
SECURITY OF LAND TENURE
At the end of the day, owning property represents the most assured way of ensuring security in land tenure. Instead of merely leasing, the Government should also divest land to small farmers. Loans to facilitate the purchase of these properties can be disbursed through micro finance institutions like the National People’s Co-operative Bank (NPCB). Divesting land would provide security of tenure and increase opportunities for small farmers as they can now use their land as collateral.
For those who may already have informal holdings, the Government should fast-track the process of providing titles by sensitising farmers on the process and the recent amendments to the Registration of Titles (Amendment) Act, 2020 as well as update the 1957 Facilities for Titles Act. Amendments should include simplifying the process and making provisions for microfinance institutions.
INFRASTRUCTURE AND TECHNOLOGY
Gaining access to infrastructure and technology is the next roadblock that hinders the transformation of the agricultural sector. Even though the aim of the agro parks is to integrate different levels of the value chain by providing infrastructure, logistics support, and facilities, this dream has not translated into reality.
Fulton described a disappointing state of affairs where several agro parks have no major infrastructure of note, with some not even having a packaging shed. Storage space is also critically low. This impairs the ability of farmers to set aside crops such as cabbage, lettuce, carrots, and Irish potatoes. These produce must be kept at extremely low temperatures to have a shelf life of up to 10 weeks.
Even for flagship crops such as yam, storage capacity is limited. A September 24 Gleaner article published this year revealed that yam farmers in southern Trelawny were left in a quandary as they were deprived of a high-volume storage facility due to their yam house being out of operation. This is a long-standing issue as the facility has been plagued over the years by the lack of a reliable supply of water.
Interestingly, this occurred despite these farmers producing 70 per cent of the US$10 million of yam exported last year. Adding to the tragedy is the fact that a National Yam Oversight Committee was only established in January, 10 years after the construction of the now defunct yam house.
With all of these challenges, it is a miracle that these farmers have been able to successfully export yam at all. How can Jamaica champion yam exports when farmers do not even have facilities to store their produce?
PUBLIC PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS
There is no reason to create a task force or committee to devise solutions to these challenges as existing institutions can be repurposed to address them. For example, Jamaica has been fervently pushing the establishment of Special Economic Zones (SEZs). SEZs encourage the location of companies in a geographic area by providing incentives such as exemption from certain taxes.
Pursuing partnerships to establish these zones alongside agro parks would increase the development of much- needed infrastructure as the private sector can compensate for some of the Government’s resource deficits. Companies would possess incentives to maintain new facilities as their supply of raw materials is linked to the packaging space provided to farmers.
Agencies like the Factories Corporation of Jamaica can provide the initial infrastructure that is subsequently rented to food-processing firms. Farmers may increase their storage capacity by paying a fee to utilise these facilities. Furthermore, investments can be made to develop new technologies and provide solar-powered storage space to reduce energy costs.
This proposal reduces the cost of transportation as there are incentives to encourage the location of more food-processing firms near farms. Fulton explained the issue with transportation when he said, “If you are selling cattle, you can’t walk behind them for five miles to where an abattoir is. The abattoirs are not in your district, the slaughterhouses are not in your district.” Every parish is impacted by this logistical hurdle.
He estimated that as much as 20 per cent of the prices paid by consumers for locally produced food is due to the cost of transporting harvests from farms. Hence, bringing factories and storage facilities to the farmers can help to reduce transportation costs, encourage production, and lower food prices.
Let us stop paying lip service to agriculture and start taking some action.
David Salmon is a public policy and management student at the University of the West Indies and a member of Youth Advisory Council of Jamaica. Send feedback to davidsalmon@live.com or Twitter @DavidSalmonJA.