GOVERNMENT’S plan to get more young people between the ages of 17 and 35 involved in farming is already gaining momentum.

Already the clearing of land is on the way for an $18-million youth project at Amity Hall in St Catherine to put 200 acres of government-owned land into production, utilising the skills of young farmers in five acre plots for production of a range of crops including hot pepper and escallion.

At the same time, the Agricultural Support Services Project (ASSP) of the Ministry of Agriculture is working with the Development Bank of Jamaica for the on-lending of funds to young farmers on a crop lien basis.

It is projected that each newly-established farmer will hire six additional persons to assist in production. On that basis, it is estimated that the project will create employment opportunities for 120 young people in the first instance.

In addition, the ASSP has a honey production project worth $15 million and is targeting 300 farmers in the parishes of St Catherine, Manchester and St James. It is hoping to improve the income-earning capacity of farmers through improved marketing and the establishment of two Queen Bee nurseries and a state-of-the-art honey bottling plant.

The farmers are to be trained in the control of diseases affecting honey bees.

A sheep and goat project, known as the Small Ruminant Development Project, is also being implemented in conjunction with the Sheep and Goat Farmers’ Association of St Elizabeth.

The objective is to increase the incomes of farmers by lowering their production costs and to increase carcass weights of the animal stock through the production of high-quality feeds and the use of genetically superior breeding stock like the Nubian breed, which will be cross-bred with local herds.

However, the bulk of the $8.5-million project will be to procure hay-making equipment, an irrigation facility and farm buildings to produce feed for livestock.

Other projects include:

. a $15.6-million vegetable production and marketing project in Springfield, St Thomas; and

. a Caribbean Exchange Programme aimed at transferring information on appropriate agricultural technologies and best practices to young farmers across the region.

The agriculture ministry said it will be working through the ASSP to create entrepreneurial opportunities for young people by channelling them into the sustainable production of crops with a distinct competitive advantage for targeted markets.

In the meantime, the Jamaica Agricultural Society (JAS) has given its blessings to the programme.

“There is a great future for young people in agriculture,” said Jamaica Agricultural Society president, Senator Norman Grant, under whose watch the number of 4-H club members has more than doubled from approximately 20,000 in 2000 to 54,000 as of March 2004.

The 4-H clubs are organised in schools and led by teachers whose role is to impart knowledge and training in agricultural practices among the youth. The rationale is that by exposing youth to agriculture they would be encouraged to pursue farming as a career or otherwise contribute to the development of the sector. About 3,000 teachers are currently engaged in that process.

“The 4-H movement has developed programmes in tractor operation and maintenance; organised an environmental challenge competition and other environmental programmes such as initiatives in organic farming, and promotes an active home economics programme where all sorts of food and other products are prepared with special assistance from the Jamaica Bauxite Institute and Jamalco, among other corporate sponsors,” Grant told the Observer.

He said the movement had raised more than $20 million on its own to fund its activities over the past two-and-a half years.

But even before the government’s initiative, young farmers, like Derrick Messam, have been trying to eke out a living from agricultural production. Messam, along with a partner, has been farming nine acres of land at Clarendon Park in Clarendon, producing primarily cash crops such as tomatoes and pumpkins for the local market.

Messam, frustrated by the lack of water in Mocho, also in Clarendon, could have turned his back on farming.

But he was able to work out an arrangement with a friend to utilise lands in Clarendon Park with access to irrigation water.

The change has boosted his productivity to the point where he now produces up to five crops per year, compared to one or two in former years.

“I just love farming; growing up in the country you did not really learn farming in a formal way but I could see where I could make a good living from it,” Messam told the Observer.

“Right now I just produce and higglers and supermarket buyers come and take the produce right in the field so I don’t run up costs for transport,” he said. He is hoping to eventually go into exports and supplying hotel chains.

Learning by a combination of trial and error and advice from persons like farm supply merchant O B Johnson, the proprietor of St Jago Farm Supplies, Messam has decided to specialise in a small range of crops, best suited for the soil conditions in his area.

“We don’t grow peppers anymore as we were wiped out by a fungus that came from the chicken manure we used to fertilise the fields. The fact that we were using flood irrigation was the cause of this,” he noted.

Unlike many other farmers, Messam does not have a problem with praedial larceny, “I just live good with the people in my community and right now I don’t feel that yet” he said.