I remember my days at primary school in Manchester during the 1950s when we were taught by our teachers and from our Caribbean Readers textbook that agriculture was the backbone of Jamaica’s economy. I dimly recall the songs about the “lots and lots of coconuts and fine banana trees” just waving in the breeze.

Tourism was in its infancy, with mostly elderly white Americans wearing straw hats, the men wearing Tower Isle shirts puffing on Jamaican-made cigars while the women shopped on fashionable King Street. Bauxite was also an infant industry just establishing itself.

Journeying to Kingston for the first time, I recall the lush cane fields with the smell of ripening cane and tobacco fields with their curing huts at regular intervals along the way. I recall the citrus groves of Manchester ranging from the small farmer with a few trees to large farms with acres of grapefruits and oranges lined out in rows. The parish did not have lots of coconuts, but it did have a lot of coffee, and Irish potato farms were a beauty to behold when in full blossom.

The late C Vivian Helwig was a large potato farmer and it took a large gang of workers many days either to plant or to reap his crop. The governor, Sir Hugh Foot, visited his farm on several occasions.

Pimento was in decline then, but there was still plenty around, and bananas had to be sprayed by aircraft in the Christiana area. In season, trucks paid weekly visits to the varying districts collecting coffee or citrus for processing or export. Space does not allow me to go into the details of the red peas, corn, sweet potatoes, yams, or other crops abundantly produced in the area.

Most farmers has at least one cow or bull, which was often sold to pay the passage of a child to England, but larger farmers had several head of cattle. Helwig had large herds of Jamaica black and red breeds. The milk truck collected milk to be semi-processed in Mandeville and the train hauled tanker loads of milk which was semi-processed at Montpelier then on to the factory at Bog Walk. The government farms at Grove Place and Litchfield were flourishing farms where we as 4-H clubbites went for training.

Most of what have been mentioned above are just memories to us senior citizens. Manchester gave the world the ortanique variety of citrus, but that is now almost dead, and so are coffee and pimento. The banana boats don’t call anymore and the trips of the sugar boats are few.

Jamaica imported just a small amount of cooking oil, and we did not have foreign loans hanging around our necks like the proverbial millstone. Many people do not realise that the original Coca-Cola was first brewed from Jamaican cola ‘bissy’ nuts and the early ginger ales contained Jamaican ginger. Many “produce” dealers, such as the late Percy Junor and Harold Waite, bought large quantities of ginger, pimento and other products of the area for export and local processing.

One of the songs at Independence by a group called Al and the Vibrators said, “We are independent now with our bauxite cane and rum, banana citrus tourism too and our industries quite a few, so move up now Jamaica move up…” Several other songs and poems hailed Jamaican agriculture.

What went wrong since then? Many things we should think on.

Trevor Samuels is the president of the National Consumers League of Jamaica. Send comments to the Observer or natcomle@cwjamaica.com.

add disclaimer