The government says it will issue more than 3,000 land titles to farmers across the island at the end of this month in a move aimed at enabling farmers to prove ownership of their properties and grant security of tenure.

Agriculture and Lands Minister Roger Clarke, making the disclosure at the 54th staging of the Denbigh Agricultural Show in Clarendon yesterday, said the ministry would also be moving with dispatch to distribute another 8,000 titles shortly.

Young Keely-Shay Reid pets this baby chick on yesterday's opening day of the 54th Denbigh Agricultural Show in Clarendon. (Photo: Bryan Cummmings)

According to Minister Clarke, the move represented good news for some farmers who have been experiencing problems with securing their titles, some of whom, he said, bought lands over 40 years ago and had not yet been able to get their titles.

"We have another 8,000 lined up and we are going to move with dispatch. It is the priority of the ministry and we are going to drive it and drive it so that our farmers can get legal tenure of the land that they have," Minister Clarke said.

Meanwhile, Clarke informed that the price of cocoa to farmers this year would be increased by 100 per cent.

"Farmers will now get $1,000 per box for their cocoa instead of the $500 they used to get in the past," Clarke said. "Cocoa has been languishing and we have decided to do something about cocoa."
Clarke also had a reassuring word for coffee farmers as he said the government would still be making an advance payment on the US$3.1 million owed to coffee farmers by the collapsed Dyoll Insurance company.

This, he said, would be in the form of an advance of $50 million in coffee claims and another $40 million as grants to help farmers resuscitate their holdings.
Clarke said that by mid-September Jamaica should be able to resume shipping ackee to the United States market. The industry suffered a setback last year when high levels of hypoglycine were discovered in some shipments of ackee destined for the US.

According to Clarke, the sector was on the rebound recording a 24 per cent growth in the first quarter of 2006 and another 30 per cent growth over the second quarter which ended in June.
Noting that banana production has also rebounded to 'pre-Hurricane Ivan days', Minister Clarke said the word from coffee farmers was that production was expected to "outstrip that of competitors this year".

"Agriculture is on the move," he said, "it is no longer on the backburner. our farmers deserve every kind of help they can get."
Meanwhile, president of the Jamaica Agricultural Society Senator Norman Grant renewed his call for the floating of a rural development bond in the region of US$250 million over a 30-year period for the development of rural infrastructure, inclusive of farm roads, factories and irrigation among others.

According to Grant, the call was a worthwhile one as, "Every time we bank on the agricultural sector it responds in a very significant way".
In the meantime, he said the JAS is to export one 20-foot container load of its signature product 'WATA' to St Maarten to be used at the first ever agricultural trade show in that island on November 11 this year.

Grant said the staging of the three-day Denbigh show, which ends tomorrow, demonstrated the recognition of the importance of agriculture in rural development.
The theme for this year's show is "Agriculture and Rural Development - Creating the future by investing in the present".

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