HAGUE, Trelawny — Agriculture Minister Audley Shaw has pledged to inject more resources into the struggling Praedial Larceny Prevention Unit.

The Praedial Larceny Prevention Unit was commissioned into service on March 2, 2015 as a collaboration between the Ministry of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries and the Ministry of National Security, to curtail the theft of agricultural produce across the length and breadth of Jamaica.

“I want to give my commitment today (Wednesday), that I am going to review the present praedial larceny unit that exists at my ministry. It needs beefing up; it needs more resources, and I am going to ensure that we put more resources into the praedial larceny unit,” the agriculture minister said.

“My heart goes out to our farmers when they produce their animals, raise their goats and cattle, plant their goods, and then somebody comes in the dead of the night to reap it before you (farmers) can reap it for yourselves and take care of your families. It’s a disgrace and we need to come together, and the Government must lead the way,” he said.

Shaw was delivering the keynote address at the 64th Hague Agricultural Show at Hague Agricultural Show Ground in Trelawny on Ash Wednesday.

Mayor of Falmouth, Councillor Colin Gager used the platform to make an urgent plea for the strict enforcement of the Praedial Larceny Prevention Act to suppress the theft of farmers’ crops and livestock.

“I use this medium to call for the enforcement of the Praedial Larceny Prevention Act to ensure that the livelihood of our farmers is safeguarded. Today I ask a very personal and pertinent question, and for sure I would like to know what has happened to the Praedial Larceny Prevention Unit, which at one point was very active and effective in the parish of Trelawny?

“I am calling for the institution and empowering of our agricultural wardens, who, under the Praedial Larceny Act, serve to detect the commission of any offence and to apprehend or summon before a justice (of the peace) persons committing any such offence.

Mayor Gager argued that as a farmer himself, he “cannot appear naive to the struggles and plight with which farmers are every so often confronted.

”I am very much concerned about the levels of theft that our farmers grapple with after having toiled and laboured so hard and unscrupulous men and women come in the night and steal from our crops and livestock,” Gager said.

Like Shaw and Gager, President of the Jamaica Agricultural Society Lenworth Fulton and Custos of Trelawny Paul Muschett commended the organisers for staging a very successful agricultural show.

— Horace Hines