Once widely respected in the region as a country that has never shirked from turning to the land to ensure its food security bona fides, there is, these days, concern that the number of local farmers is continuing to dwindle, according to the Jamaica Agriculture Society (JAS). The President of the JAS, Lenworth Fulton, has reportedly said that he wants the Jamaican government to fashion a set of policies to rebuild agriculture on the island.
The news of Jamaica’s seemingly ‘slipping’ agriculture bona fides, published in the April 3 issue of the Jamaica Observer, comes at a time when the Caribbean, as a whole, is experiencing a food security challenge the extent of which has attracted attention at the level of key United Nations food security-related organizations and triggered a regional food security initiative spearheaded by Guyana and Barbados to establish a food security terminal and to create a reliable mechanism for moving agricultural produce to the most hard-hit countries in the region. In Jamaica, agriculture experts have reportedly expressed concern over the fact that an increasing number of youths are leaving the sector.