THE Jamaica Agricultural Society (JAS) is to launch a rural development campaign aimed at creating a unified voice for the economic development of rural communities next year. JAS president Senator Norman Grant said the campaign was designed to encourage the development of the economy of rural communities through business expansion and would be the society’s flagship programme for 2007.

“We will unveil details early in the new year,” Grant said.

“The JAS will host a rural regeneration conference, out of which we will establish a rural regeneration council which is intended to provide a powerful and united voice representing independent views on key rural issues,” he added.

He said that both Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller and Agriculture Minister Roger Clarke had agreed to meet a team from the agricultural sector on November 29, to discuss a wide range of issues that they would like addressed in partnership with the government.

In addition, Grant said that Governor-General Professor Kenneth Hall has already agreed to launch the programme next year.

“This rural regeneration council will be an independent entity – set up by the JAS – which will seek to break down barriers to rural regeneration and provide a positive climate for the growth of businesses in the countryside,” he added.

He said the council was the missing link in seeking to establish a more viable and sustainable rural sector and control the rural-urban drift.

Grant, who was speaking at a church service at the Fellowship Tabernacle in Kingston on Sunday to launch the third annual celebration of Eat Jamaican Day, warned that farmers and rural communities were not prepared to continue as the “Cinderellas” of the economy.

He noted that domestic crop production for the second quarter of 2006 grew by 30.6 per cent, and that the latest report from the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ) revealed that for the third quarter, ending September, the sector grew by 9 per cent compared to the corresponding period last year.

This showed that the farmers recognised the importance of increasing productivity for the country’s development. However, he said that their role was not being given the recognition it had earned.

Grant also noted that despite promising signs from the government and the Opposition of increasing interest in rural development, farmers were determined to take their destiny into their own hands.

“We will no longer remain at the back of the line. We will no longer be the ‘Cinderellas’. We will take the lead in the repositioning of our rural people and their families,” Grant said.

Other speakers at the service included Minister of State for Agriculture and Lands Victor Cummings, and Opposition spokesman on Agriculture Senator Anthony Johnson.

Cummings admitted that while agricultural production has been expanding, there is still room for improvement. He also called for more involvement of young people in agriculture.

“I am very confident that, once we get production up we will improve our food security, reduce the need for imported foodstuff and make more Jamaican products available for export,” Cummings added.

Johnson noted that with some 200,000 people involved in agriculture, this accounted for more than 20 per cent of the workforce and a formidable economic force which could not be ignored.

However, he said that he was concerned about the presence of large quantities of imported products in the local markets.

“What is foreign food doing in the Coronation Market? What is clothes from China doing in the Linstead market? And what is ‘bling bling’ from wherever doing in these markets?” Johnson asked.

He also criticised the state of the markets, stating that the conditions were not fit enough for the people selling there and welcomed the proposals for encouraging rural development to reduce rural-urban drift.

The sermon was preached by the pastor of the church, Rev Al Miller, who warned against the selling of rural lands to foreigners. He suggested that any ownership of Jamaican land by foreigners should be on a leasehold basis.

Miller also remarked that Jamaica’s best days were not past. “Our best days are yet to come,” he stated, adding that agriculture was critical to the emergence of “better days”. He also urged Jamaicans to develop a taste for their own food, “so as to eat what we grow and grow what we eat”.