A plate of locally-produced food served at yesterday's launch of the 'Eat Jamaican' campaign, at the Denbigh Showground in Clarendon. (Photo: Michael Gordon)

SAYING that "something had to be done" to save Jamaica's farm sector and to slash the country's import bill, the Jamaica Agricultural Society yesterday formally launched a campaign to encourage Jamaicans to eat more of what they grow.

The campaign comes against a big rise in the importation of foreign foods, and a drop in local production and consumption.

Senator Norman Grant, president of the Jamaica Agricultural Society, said that recent figures released by the Statistical Institute of Jamaica showed that between January and March this year, food imports stood at US$938 million, an increase of 17 per cent over the corresponding period last year.

The food import bill for last year was J$23.2 billion.

"Export earnings inched up by just under one percentage point over the quarter (January to March) to US$294 million, leaving a yawning gap of US$644 million. We must change this," said Grant.

At the same time, he noted that agricultural production declined by 23 per cent between 1995 and 2002. "Employment has also shrunk from 223,000 in 1995 to 190,000 in 2002, a loss of 33,200 jobs. Agricultural exports, including sugar, declined by 16 per cent from US$265 million in 1995 to US$222 million in 2001.

"We must now renew our faith in our agriculture and our people," said Grant.

Imported foods have, over the years, been dominating local supermarket shelves despite high tariffs to protect local farmers.

In April last year, the agriculture minister, Roger Clarke, announced a 260 per cent hike in the import duties on chicken and vegetables. Former president of the JAS, Bobby Pottinger, said then that low prices for dumped chicken and vegetables were deterring consumers from buying local foods. He had also admitted that low productivity contributed to the high cost of some local farm produce.

But despite the tariffs some imported food items continue to sell below those produced locally.

However, Grant said that an increase in food products has been having a demoralising effect on the country's farmers and their communities, and he is hoping that the JAS' campaign will change all that.

"Something must be done, and we must begin now," he said. He added that the JAS would be working hand-in-hand with the Ministry of Agriculture and its agencies in this new endeavour to show Jamaicans the many benefits of eating home-grown produce. He noted that it would not be an easy task, since it entailed nothing less than a change in the consumption culture of the people, but observed that this was the first step, and called on all well-thinking Jamaicans to join in what should be a common goal.

"The fact is, that in tandem with all that is being done by our government regarding the various world trade regulations, and the changes being wrought in this globalised world, we, the Jamaican farmers and the Jamaican consumers must play our part. We must produce what we eat, and eat what we produce," he stressed.

Governor General Sir Howard Cooke, who had earlier declared November 25 as "Eat Jamaican Day", at a ceremony held at the Denbigh Showground in Clarendon, appealed to Jamaicans to take local production and consumption more seriously.

"I want every boy and girl here to promise that this year you will plant two fruit trees and acquire two rabbits. You can't lose on rabbits as I have experimented with them at my farm at Kings House," he said.

"Every boy in the country must try and get a goat and we must go back to eating our local produce such as sweet cassava," Sir Howard said.

In reading the proclamation, which will bring into being the annual observance of November 25 as the day on which the nation gives thanks for the contribution of farmers to the quality of life of the country, Sir Cooke noted that "Eat Jamaican Day" also signalled the start of a thrust by the JAS to make Jamaican consumers more aware of the need to support local farmers by making a conscious effort to purchase locally-produced food.

Minister of Agriculture Roger Clarke also bemoaned the reason why Jamaicans go abroad and bring back food that can be locally sourced. "If you see some of the things they bring back home; rice, flour and ground provisions that are readily available at home," the minister said to much applause.

"Despite world trade regulations, no World Trade Organisation can tell the Jamaican people what to eat, and we must use that as a weapon," he said.

Clarke also said farmers were not doing enough to push their produce in the supermarkets. "The reality is that today's housewives are not going to the supermarket and pick up produce if they are not properly packaged and looking clean. You can't expect to send your produce to the supermarket with half the farm on it. It must look attractive," he said.

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