KINGSTON, Jamaica — Opposition spokesman on agriculture and water Lothan Cousins is urging the authorities to make it easier for registered farmers to be issued with firearm licences.

Making his presentation in the Sectoral Debate on Tuesday, Cousins charged that praedial larceny is the enemy of farming and national food security.

He argued that it is impossible for the police alone to deal with this problem and farmers in the country need to be empowered to be able to protect their lives and livelihood.

“We must empower our farmers as we seek to address the issue of praedial larceny. I can recall vividly as a child growing up in the plains of Clarendon, seeing farmers in my community who owned cattle and goats, going to ‘bush’ with their shotguns over their shoulder,” said Cousins.

“I am proposing that the Ministry of Agriculture and the Firearm Licensing Authority collaborate to fast track the applications of registered farmers currently before the authority, with a view to arming all farmers, without criminal records, with shotguns to serve as a deterrent to all those ‘Two Foot Puss’, as our Former Minister of Agriculture of blessed memory would say,” added Cousins.

He pointed to the case of Derron Brown, a 30-year-old cattle farmer from Riversdale, St Catherine, who tried to protect his animals and ended up with a three-and-half year prison sentence for illegal possession of firearm and ammunition.

“The court documents revealed that Mr Brown became despondent after his cattle were stolen on several occasions, which result in great financial loss and after making numerous complaints to the police with no response he decided to obtain the firearm to protect his property.

“The father of three is described as industrious and kind natured, with no previous convictions but is now a convict because we could not assist him to protect his livelihood and he was forced to take steps to protect it himself, albeit by improper means which we do not support,” declared Cousins, as he argued that no other farmer should have to resort to an illegal act to protect their property.