Mandeville, Manchester — Gordon Cowans, principal of the Knox Community College, gets visibly annoyed at what he calls the ‘nuttin nah gwaan’ mentality among many Jamaican young people.

Hence his air of high optimism at last month’s launch of an Associate Degree in Agricultural Technology at Knox College’s Spalding Campus.

“We (at Knox) are saying now is the time when the talk about turning Jamaica to agriculture really needs to be less talk and more action,” Cowans told

Jamaica Observer Central.

“This is our contribution, small as it is, our way of saying to young people that there are commercially viable opportunities (requiring) professional development in an area [agriculture] that the nation needs,” he added.

As explained by Dr Stenneth Davis, who heads the Agriculture and Environmental Studies Department in which the associate degree programme falls, the new initiative is meant as a vehicle in moulding professionals “with the ability to lead the development of agriculture”.

Davis said the programme was a response to recognition that agriculture was “key” to Jamaica’s economic development; that there was urgent need to meet the “demand for top quality food produced by sustainable methods” and for environmental awareness among agricultural industry professionals.

Twelve students are currently enrolled in the agricultural technology associate degree programme and the expectation is that enrolment will grow rapidly.

The Department of Agriculture and Environmental Studies, which runs “a model commercial and tutoral farm”, will also be expanded to include pig rearing, broiler and layer production, Davis said. Currently, the department, which accommodates 109 students at Knox campuses in Spalding, Mandeville and May Pen, is “heavily in crop production,” he said.

Guest speaker at the launch ceremony, acclaimed community college educator, Dr Angella Samuels-Harris emphasised the importance of using science and scientific training to grow agriculture and by extension Jamaica.

Crucially, she said, Jamaicans needed to understand the value of production-based streams of education such as agriculture. She lamented that too many parents remained captive to the idea that farming is backward. Many were continuing to encourage their children to aspire for white-collar jobs such as law “although lawyers can’t get work” because they struggled to “associate farming with prosperity”, Samuels-Harris said.

She stressed that as part of the drive to make agriculture more attractive, farm theft, commonly referred to as praedial larceny, needed to be brought under control.

The associate degree launch ceremony took place alongside a farm exposition on the Knox Spalding Campus.