HAUGHTON COURT, Hanover – With a budget of more than $1.8 million, organisers of the Hanover Agricultural Show are promising that this year’s staging, the fifth, will be the best ever.

The year 2019 has been widely acclaimed as the best staging of the agricultural show but with a three-year hiatus brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, conceptualiser of the event Kameil Scott told the Jamaica Observer that the plan is to have a bigger show at the Bioprist Complex (formerly Jockey International garment factory) property in Haughton Court on May 26.

“The fourth staging really set the pace for something bigger so we believe that this year will be even bigger,” said Scott who is also parish manager of the Jamaica Agricultural Society (JAS).

Scott explained why she came up with the idea to introduce this annual event to the parish.

“It was always a passion of mine to see the parish have something because I looked at it and said, ‘Montpelier has a show, Hague has a show, but Hanover has nothing.’ You know, it seems as if Hanover is always at the back end so why not push forward? We are just as important as everybody else,” stated Scott.

The show — which is a collaboration of efforts by the JAS, the Hanover Association of Branch Societies, the Hanover 4-H Clubs, and the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA) — will be held this year under the theme: ‘Grow smart, eat smart… invest in youth, invest in agriculture, invest in the future’.

Scott said the show aims to provide local farmers with access to the various organisations and entities in the sector that can provide marketing opportunities, advance farmers’ interests, and create linkages between local farmers.

The initiative is also designed to create income for the parish office to help with funding much-needed reconstruction of the pavilion that houses its farmers at the annual Denbigh Agricultural, Industrial and Food Show in Clarendon.

During this year’s staging there will be a youth champion farmer competition, plus awards for the most outstanding contributions to agriculture, and best displays.

RADA Parish Manager Raymond Reid, in a message delivered in his absence at the launch of this year’s show, congratulated the JAS and said the hope is that it will be the most successful.

Member of Parliament for Hanover Western Tamika Davis, who was represented by her assistant Camile Slowly before her arrival, pointed to the importance of agriculture and the need to support local farmers.

In the meantime, guest speaker at the launch Deneil Watson pointed to the importance of attracting more young people into farming.

“We need to attract more young Hanoverians to become active members of the agricultural sector and find ways to transform the industry to one that yields higher productivity, especially here in Hanover,” said Watson, who is the commercial services manager at the Hanover Municipal Corporation.

“I know that it is a tough job to get young people involved [in farming] at a time when $100 billion is nothing to draw down. But you know, those young people who have decided to do farming rather than taking up the gun or scamming, you have made the right choice,” added Watson.

Since the inception of the show in 2016 the parish has won the national champion farmer competition, and the parish’s farm queen placed in the top five at the Denbigh show.

In 2016 the parish, for the first time in 55 years, won the National Farm Queen Competition held at Denbigh.

Among this year’s sponsors and contributors are H&L Agro, the Development Bank of Jamaica, Gateway Credit Union, Juici Patties, T Geddes Grant (Distributors) Limited, the Hanover Municipal Corporation, and the Hanover Western MP’s office.