THE Bernard Lodge Farmers Group is making another appeal for the Government to halt its Greater Bernard Lodge Master Plan and consider the ramifications of their decision more closely.

The farmers are now pointing to the findings of a two-day workshop which challenges the value proposition of the Government’s master plan initiative.

The workshop, which was sponsored by the UK Global Challenges Research Fund, found that while the Greater Bernard Lodge Master Plan has promised to be innovative in promoting principles of “equity, sustainability, and adaptation to climate change”, these principles are being left by the wayside.

This, in light of the fact that the development will result in reduced capacity for domestic food security, water security, and will lead to the disruption of farmers’ livelihoods through displacement from arable lands.

In a release to the

Jamaica Observer, the farmers group argued “at a time when global food systems are under immense pressure, threat and scrutiny, and in the context of the ongoing fallout from the existential threat of climate change, global pandemics, recessions and geopolitical instability, Jamaica is giving up prime, Class one, arable and irrigated land to plant concrete rather than food.”

The development area is expected to be 5,397.02 acres — with 2,370 acres of what the farmers called “the most fertile agricultural lands in the country” being converted into residential, commercial, light industrial and social service facilities.

According to the last agricultural census, between 1996 and 2007, 23 per cent of agricultural land area has been lost in Jamaica. The total area of land under agriculture is now less than 40 per cent, in comparison to over 60 per cent in the 1960s.

With this declining trend in agricultural land, the farmers say they have noticed an increase in food importation as well as diet-related noncommunicable diseases, given the heavy consumption of imported foods that are high in fats, sugars and salt.

“This trend induces a significant vulnerability for Jamaica’s food and nutritional security, which is further compounded by climate departure into hotter and drier environments plus cascading external shocks. These shocks emanate from events like intensive hurricanes and disruptions in global markets, as evidenced by the [novel] coronavirus pandemic which massively increased food insecurity and hunger in the world and the Caribbean, or as seen in the Ukraine-Russian war impacting food supplies and fuel prices,” the farmers’ group stated.

The farmers are recommending “a small yet urgent step to sustaining the integrity of Vision 2030 for Jamaica is to halt the change of use of the lands in the Bernard Lodge Area and place a moratorium on the conversion of other agricultural lands. This vision would require placing a premium value on land equity, the rights of farmers in accordance with the 2018 UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants, and on a climate-just deal for all farmers who are committed to producing for our health and wealth.”