JAMAICAN Egbert “Bob” Miller has been awarded Farmer of the Year 2007 by the Inter-American Institute for Co-operation on Agriculture (IICA).

The announcement was made at the recently staged Denbigh Agricultural Show in May Pen, Clarendon.

Miller, brother-in-law of Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller, was selected from a group of 34 competitors on July 27th in Guatemala at the Western Hemispheric Board of Agriculture Conference.

Noting his pride at having won the award, Miller said that agriculture had always been “near and dear” to his heart and that he had long ago decided to achieve the best in the field.

“I took it on to myself aiming for the skies through bolts and bars, and so this is very fulfiling for me. There are role models in sports, music and politics but I am proud to have carved out my niche in agriculture of which I am a role model,” the agriculture specialist, who was educated at Knockalva High School and the Extra Mural Department of the University of the West Indies (UWI), told the Sunday Observer.

Miller, the owner and operator of Circle B Farm and Club, was appointed to represent Jamaica after winning the Jamaica leg of the western hemispheric award in May. It was that victory that qualified him to compete aginst the other 34 candidates drawn from across the western hemisphere.

Miller was selected as winner by a panel of judges from Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Costa Rica, Grenada, Jamaica, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Trinidad and Tobago, Hungary and Uruguay.

One of the nine sons of farmers Ezra and Adriana Miller (now deceased), Miller began his outstanding career in agriculture in 1967, working at Long Pond Sugar Factory’s Research and Development Centre, the Frome Sugar Factory, and at the wood preservation plant.

His first outstanding acheivement came in 1962, when he was awarded the “Blue Ribbon Award” from the 4-H Club for efficency in lining and planting crops and contouring lands.

In 1979, he held the position of farm manager of the Llandovery Farm, where the main products grown there were coconuts and sugar cane.

With a passion for farming and a dream to excel at the highest level, Miller went on to acquire 43 acres of land in Priory District, St Ann. On that land, he developed the Circle B Farm and Club.

In 1983, he read the World Food Day message broadcast via BBC, and in that same year became a senator representing agriculture. He was also named chairman of the St Ann Land Authority, which is today known as the Rural Agriculture Development Agency (RADA).

He was champion farmer of St Ann for 17 consecutive years, and was twice named the National Champion Farmer of Jamaica.

Miller, also a Justice of the Peace in St Ann, has held many prestigious positions, including director of the All-Island Banana Growers’ Association; board member and excecutive of the Jamaica Agricultural Society (JAS); acting second vice-president of the JAS; and board member of the Bureau of Standards Jamaica representing the farming sector.

He has, meanwhile, established himself not only in farming but in tourism. His Circle B Farm and Club serves not only agricultural purposes, but is also an ideal picnic location as well as one of the preferred places to host weddings, private parties and tours.