Praedial larceny talks to be held this week, says Green
FLOYD GREEN, the newly installed minister of agriculture, fisheries and mining, says he will be meeting with stakeholders this week to iron out strategies to combat praedial larceny. The issue has negatively impacted Jamaica’s agricultural sector.
Addressing Sunday’s inaugural staging of the Westmoreland Agricultural Show 2023 at the Manning’s School in Savanna-la-Mar, Westmoreland, Green said the penalties for praedial larceny need to be much stricter in order to deter thieves, particularly those targeting farmers who specialise in animal-rearing.
“One of the big holdbacks for farmers, especially young farmers going into goat-rearing, has to be praedial larceny, and combating praedial larceny will be my major priority as minister. In fact, I expect this week to meet with the legal team to see where we are on introducing more stringent penalties for those who go out and steal from our farmers,” said Green.
“The penalties are far too low, and I do expect over the next three weeks to engage the commissioner of police [Major General Antony Anderson] to see how we can put more boots on the ground in divisions that are having a particular challenge with praedial larceny,” Green added. “I have already signalled to the permanent secretary that we have to see how we can accelerate the base of implementation of our agricultural wardens’ programme. We have to tackle praedial larceny if we are going to have our farmers with small ruminants do well.”
Pearnel Charles Jr, Green’s immediate predecessor in the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, had declared last May that consideration was being given to increasing the fines for praedial larceny to upwards of $5 million, as part of efforts to halt the illegal practice.
Under Section 11 of the Praedial Larceny (Prevention) Act, offenders who are suspected of possessing stolen produce or livestock, and who refuse to allow a search of their premises by the authorities, shall upon conviction face a fine of $40,000 or up to three years’ imprisonment.
Section 12 of the act states that if the court is satisfied that certain properties under the control of an offender have been used to commit praedial larceny, or were intended for that purpose, those properties may be seized.
During the 2022-23 period, 52 acts of praedial larceny were reported to the authorities. However, that is a drop in the bucket compared to the estimated $6 billion farmers have suffered in losses over the past 10 years.
Green also noted that events such as Sunday’s agricultural fair allow Jamaica’s farmers a broader market for their produce and a chance to have their efforts appreciated.
“It is great that we have engagements of this nature where we can give our farmers additional markets that people can come to and participate in, while also highlighting the new technologies that we have going around for agriculture and fisheries. But also importantly, it gives us the opportunity to tell our farmers thank you, as sometimes we take for granted the hard work of our farmers and fishers,” said Green.