AGRICULTURE and Lands Minister Roger Clarke yesterday promised to address a preciptous and continuous increases in the cost of fertiliser, which, he said was causing grave concern and threatening farmers islandwide.

“As of tomorrow (today) we will seek anywhere in the world to find the cheapest fertiliser. It cannot continue like that, we have to move with dispatch,” said Clarke.

He was speaking at the launch of the 2007 Denbigh Agricutural show held at the Hi Pro farm store at White Marl in St Catherine.

The 55 year-old agricultural show will be staged this year under the theme “Agro Technology – Advancing National Development”, will be staged from Saturday, August 4 to Monday, August 6.

Clarke told the gathering that the future of the island’s agriculture sector was threatened as fertiliser prices continued to move, with farmers increasingly unable to afford the commodity.

“.Prices have moved by 100 per cent from last year to this year. It is of grave concern,” said Clarke.

While a subsidy on fertiliser could be considered one solution, Clarke said that it would not slow the increases.

“You could end up using the entire budget to subsidise fertiliser,” he said. Subsidies, he added, may not benefit the farmers.

“You cannot say you are going to subsidise. If we put subsidies on, it still might not reflect the price that the farmer gets,” said the agriculture minister.

He added that two companies supplied fertiliser in the recent past and prices were reasonable because of price wars.

“One close because it could not compete. Since then prices have not stopped moving,” said Clarke. “As the minister I am not going to sit down and watch it.”

Fertiliser is currently manufactured locally by Newport Fersan and distributed through various outlets islandwide.

Hi-Pro, a local distributor, told the Observer that the price of fertiliser ranged between $1,500 per 110 pound bag to approximately $4,000 per bag.

In the meantime, Clarke yesterday urged farmers to take responsibility for their actions.

“In these days a farmer has a responsibility to himself. There is no shortcut when it comes to efficiency,” said the minister.

Senator Norman Grant, president of the Jamaica Argicultural Society (JAS), in explaining the theme of this year’s show, said “the use of technology in agriculture is deemed a blessing and a remarkable opportunity to increase productivity and improve the quality of agricultural produce.

“This year we would like to depict, in simple terms, the technology-driven agriculture to patrons entering Denbigh, with the objective of promoting this opportunity,” he said.