DENBIGH, Clarendon – Garfield Ewart, acting executive director, Jamaica 4-H Clubs, is calling on agriculture-related agencies and institutions to be game changers in the industry with special emphasis on climate-smart practices geared towards youth-led businesses.

According to Ewart, supporting youth-led businesses will strengthen their capacity to adapt to the effects of climate change.

“We recognise that we have a very far way to go given the increased heat we have been experiencing recently. As youth-led institutions [we] have to come up with innovative ways to help, especially our livestock enterprises to cope with the increased heat,” said Ewart.

“Is it that we are going to have more affordable and adaptable cooling systems for livestock production, or is it that we are going to have houses being designed with more ventilation so that animals are not exposed to excessive heat stress,” added Ewart while addressing patrons at the recent 69th staging of the Denbigh Agricultural and Industrial Food Show.

He further stated that the Jamaica 4-H Clubs is committed to the youth in agriculture programme which, over the last year, has implemented a number of initiatives to address issues and support persons with an interest in farming.

“Over the last year we have developed and supported 1,072 new youth-led agri-enterprises and this year we are seeking to assist more youngsters to get involved. We will not be able to do it by ourselves and so we thank our parent ministry for the continued support to the 4-H Clubs so that we can continue to support our youth farmers,” said Ewart.

He encouraged the young farmers who have participated in the competitions at Denbigh and won major prizes to use the opportunity as a stepping stone to become established as productive and successful farmers.

“I want to reaffirm the commitment of the Jamaica 4-H Clubs to continue to be strong partners and seeking to promote and support youth initiatives so that the agricultural sector will have a robust succession plan so that when those farmers now in business leave the sector, we will have competent persons who are willing to take over,” added Ewart.

The 83-year-old Jamaica 4-H Clubs is the administrator of the Government’s National Youth in Agriculture Policy. It is mandated to empower youth in agriculture and related areas using adaptive technologies to create wealth while contributing to national development.