Lessons learnt? Jamaica aiming to ‘go big’ on food security

Seemingly mindful of the sustained threat to the food security of much of the Caribbean from a seasonal climate crisis that wreaks havoc with food production, Jamaica appears set to double down on its historic commitment to agriculture, announcing recently, through its Agriculture Minister Floyd Green, that the country will be pumping $J6 billion in research to improve the varieties and yields of a number of agricultural crops over the next six years. “The Jamaican Government will be investing $6 billion over the next six years in research to improve the varieties and yields of a number of agricultural crops,” Agriculture Minister Floyd Green said.

In pursuit of this objective, the government of Jamaica is entering into the undertaking with the country’s private sector as its partner. There is little doubt that the collective mind of Jamaica’s political administration would have been swayed by the devastation of parts of its agriculture sector, a development that would have impacted the country’s food security bona fides as much as it would have affected its foreign currency earnings. Experience has taught the Caribbean Community the value of food security, Green is quoted as saying,

Unsurprisingly, the country’s Agriculture Minister has said that in pursuit of the strengthening of its food security credentials, Jamaica will be embarking on this crucial assignment with modern technology as a close partner. The tech side to the undertaking, Green is reported as saying, will be used to respond to challenges like praedial larceny and, as well, the labour shortage which it continues to face.

There is, of course, the likelihood that Jamaica will be seeking ‘partners’ from both within and without the region in pursuit of the successful execution of the undertaking. Here the question arises as to whether sister CARICOM countries, like Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago, will be approached to bring their respective experiences to bear in support of Jamaica’s food security undertaking. In the course of his presentation, the Jamaica Agriculture Minister reportedly also called for increased private sector investment in agriculture to help grow the country’s economy. “We have to put agriculture as a priority of our capital markets as the capital that we have in the country often shies away from agriculture,” Green, whose portfolio embraces fisheries and mining, reportedly said.

To back its focus on strengthening the country’s food security bona fides, in the wake of the recent lessons learnt from Hurricane Beryl, Green disclosed that the Government of Jamaica will be injecting $6 billion into agricultural research over the medium term. If Jamaica is to successfully execute such an undertaking it will have to tackle the challenge of farm labour deficiency as well as the injection of a generous amount of technology into the undertaking.