FIRST vice-president of the Jamaica Agricultural Society Glendon Harris on Thursday told a meeting of the Select Senate Committee on Prime Lands that the construction of houses on the St Catherine plains “is a mistake that must be stopped immediately”.

Harris was making his organisation’s submissions to the committee, chaired by Senator Norman Grant, president of the JAS, which is in the final stages of drafting its report to Parliament on the proliferation of housing schemes and other projects on farm lands in the last 10 years.

Harris blasted “the squandering of our agricultural assets which we hold in trust for generations to come”. Major housing schemes, he said, had been established on fertile land with expensive irrigation infrastructure “that has spread across the parish like metastasising cancer eating away the heritage of our people”.

He said that with an enlightened approach to town planning, there were housing solutions available, which would not compromise land suitable for agriculture. These parcels of lands, he said, were also environmentally friendly. He added that in tourism areas, properly planned development could co-exist comfortably with agriculture and further enhance the product.

“My generation cannot be proud of the deterioration of these assets that we inherited,” said the JAS vice-president. But he said it was not too late “to stop the downward slide and reverse the present unacceptable trend…”

He recommended that:

. there be proper mapping of districts along Highway 2000 to ensure that there were

areas clearly defined for agriculture;

. more stringent actions be taken by certifying agencies such as the Ministry of Agriculture, the National Environment and Planning Agency, the National Works Agency, the Fire Department, Ministry of Land and the Environment, and the Ministry of Health, in reclassifying land previously zoned for agriculture, and the reclamation of mined-out bauxite lands to accommodate agricultural production.

Harris also suggested that there be a role for the JAS – the umbrella organisation representing farmers – in the process of re-zoning land previously used for agriculture, for non-agricultural use, in the interest of transparency. He said, too, that a special tax be imposed on unused agriculture lands.

Among the other high points of the committee meeting were:

. Senator Shirley Williams’ observations that because of the delay in the promulgation of development orders, persons build in some areas without getting planning permission, and that government was the biggest holders of idle land.

. Senator Anthony Johnson’s suggestion that University of the West Indies staff at the Mona campus and relevant government advisers be invited to give their views to the committee’s meetings; and

. Senator Trevor Munroe’s call for the removal of the power of the housing minister as a “Corporation Sole”, whereby he can override any other institution of the state in terms of the use of land for housing, in keeping with a 2002 ministry paper that recommended its removal.