PRESIDENT of the Jamaica Agricultural Society (JAS) Lenworth Fulton is calling for the Government to appoint a special investment envoy for the agricultural sector to help boost investments in farming and cut the food import bill which touched a record US$1.4 billion last year.

Fulton went further attributing the rise in the food import to policymakers who only give scant regard for the agricultural sector and the people who make a livelihood off the land.

“I don’t think there is any great interest in agriculture, either,” he told the Business Observer. “Recently, the prime minister named some special envoys and none was appointed to agriculture.”

Fulton’s observation is in clear reference to Prime Minister Andrew Holness’ announcement last Thursday about the appointment of four special investment envoys who are tasked to play a pivotal role in attracting investment and driving economic growth. Those appointed were Adam Stewart for tourism, Theresa Roberts for culture and arts, Lloyd Carney for technology and Dushyant Savadia, also for technology.

“However, for an area like agriculture and rural develop, no envoy was named to blaze the trail as was done for tourism with Adam Stewart,” Fulton said.

“Why couldn’t someone from Hi-Pro or from Nutramix or from Tru-Juice blaze the trail for agriculture for us. We don’t have anybody to do that, so we would need somebody like that too.”

He went on to lambast the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA) saying it is not achieving in its mandate to help Jamaican farmers.

“I really think RADA is failing. It really needs to be reorganised. I started a reorganisation when I ran the entity but that reorganisation was superficial. It needs real reorganising,” he said.

He also called for a refocus on agricultural research saying the current structure operated by the Bodles Research Station in St Catherine “is a joke. It’s just some big buildings.”

Food import bill

Turning more fulsomely to the food import bill which grew 25 per cent last year to US$1.4 billion, due to higher spending on imports of cereals and cereal preparations as well as fixed vegetable fats and oils, according to the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (Statin), Fulton said a plan is needed for agriculture that targets growing crops here which can be done economically. Food imports accounted for 18 per cent of total goods bought from overseas in 2022. Only fossil fuel imports accounted for a larger share of the import bill.

“We need a policy to tackle the food import bill. One which outlines what we are going to import, how much we import and when we import,” Fulton told the Jamaica Observer.

“We also have to look at the scarcity of US dollars to pay for food imports,” he continued, saying much of the monies spent to buy food from abroad could be saved if farmers are allowed to produce to satisfy local demand.

He, however, acknowledged that there are certain food items the country cannot do without importing such as rice, flour and animal feed.

“Those are non-negotiable in terms of imports because we do not produce them. However, we import a lot of legumes that could be produced here,” he said. “We have a vibrant chicken market here, and yet still the chicken back imports are very high.”

Pearnel Charles Jr, minister of agriculture and fisheries, addressing the food import bill in his recent contribution to the sectoral debate in the House of Representatives, pointed out that in 2021, the cost of food imports stood at $169 billion, up from $23 billion in 2001.

“Surprisingly, however, the volume of food imports in 2001 was 946.6 million kg, increasing to 1.2 billion kg, in 2021….this is a mere 26.5 per cent [increase] over 21 years. This amounts to a little more than 1 per cent per year, with a reducing rate of increase as we expand our import substitution drive,” the minister told the House.

Still, Fulton was strident.

“Even 1 per cent increase in the food import bill is hard for this country since we have to find the foreign exchange to pay for it. We have a dollar at $155 for 1. We have interest rates which have gone up to help back that dollar over the last year and a half. So no matter what you do with importation, it is putting our dollar under pressure.”

Fulton pointed out that in order to help stabilise the value of the currency, the Bank of Jamaica has been intervening in the foreign exchange market, “which means it is selling off our assets which are held in our reserves to businesspeople to keep the dollar stable, and part of that is to sustain a US$1.4-billion food bill. So, I don’t want anybody to tell me about 1 per cent increase, it’s intolerable.”

However, Charles Jr told the House in his presentation, “that the animal feed component of the food import bill matches the curve of the total food bill almost perfectly when one graphs the figures. The animal feed bill constantly approximates 30 per cent to 35 per cent of the total food import bill, securing the nutrition of our livestock, the aquaculture sector, racehorses and even your pet dogs, cats and birds at home as well as our animals in the zoos.”

But Fulton said the issue stems beyond those highlighted. He said the continued neglect of the dairy industry sums up the lack of attention the entire agricultural sector has been getting from successive administrations.

“We need about 70 million litres of milk per year to supply our businesses with milk to make yoghurt, ice cream and all the things fresh milk can do, and we have to be importing milk powder and skimmed milk to do it,” he noted. At the height of milk production in Jamaica in 1992, the country produced 40 million litres of milk, but now produces just about 13 million gallons.

Other items such as peas importation also came in for scrutiny.

“We import US$9 million worth of kidney beans from Belize. These crops can be grown right here in Jamaica to cut the import bill and give youths something to do. They don’t have any jobs, that’s why they are up and down robbing Beryllium enuh,” he said.

Fulton, however, admits that it is hard to attract young people into farming if technology is not incorporated more into the profession.

“Young people will be interested if they modernise the farms. We don’t have no farms, so we cant test that theory,” he said in response to claims that young people do not see farming as a viable profession.

“Take for example when I used to grow yams. You think these young youths are going to follow me up a yam bush on a donkey with a hoe over my back to farm. They will not come out of high school to do that. Until we modernise our farms, we cannot say that they are not interested, because they show interest up to the 4H level.”