As praedial larceny continue to root out billions in the gains from agricultural output, serious steps including the amendment of laws are being taken to stem rising cases and to penalise perpetrators of the act.

With under-reporting already posing its own set of challenges and limiting accurate reporting on the true cost of the phenomenon, industry experts have said an estimated amount could easily fall somewhere between $5 billion $10 billion on the lower end and as much as $25 billion per annum, if inflationary and other economic and security costs are to be considered.

Decade-old industry estimates already points to approximately $6 billion in losses per annum being suffered by farmers as a result of praedial larceny. With over 250,000 registered farmers and fishers across the island, the agriculture sector rank high among the key pillars of the economy.

“Although there are guesstimates, the figure, in reality, if we put all the factors together, is probably higher than what we have been estimating. It’s not only what is stolen out of the ground including crops and animals, but also the negative impacts which deter future investments in the industry that must be factored as part of this cost,” said national praedial larceny prevention officer in the Ministry of Agriculture, Superintendent Oral Pascoe during in an interview with the Jamaica Observer.

Pointing to a recently commissioned survey by the economic planning unit of the ministry, the officer said the hope is to by first quarter of 2024 arrive at results that will provide a figure that is more reflective of what current costs may look like.

He said the age-old crime, which affects countries worldwide, has, in light of rising incidents and mounting losses for farmers, become an area of great concern for government, the ministry and other players in the agriculture sector. As such, aside from increased stakeholder engagements with key agricultural bodies such as the Jamaica Agricultural Society (JAS) and the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA), a number of other strategies, chief among which are those focused on prevention, compliance and enforcement, are currently being engaged by the unit to reduce the number of cases and to strengthen policing.

JAS President Lenworth Fullerton, in recently citing a long list of issues plaguing the sector, singled out climate change and praedial larceny as two of those most pressing of which farmers are becoming more concerned for the future.

Highlighting some recent amendments to the Agricultural Produce Act (APA), set to take effect next year, the law enforcement officer said the amended provisions will help to significantly put a dent in farm theft activities as it improves the compliance framework. This, following an imposition of harsher penalties such as higher fines of $3 million or three years imprisonment up from the previous $250,000 and three months prison time.

“In stepping up the compliance we also want to urge farmers to become registered and to use their receipt books at all times when trading in commercial agricultural produce. Part of the new amendments also seeks to ensure that there is a greater reach by the farmers, and as such there is now a need for them to partner with the main industry groups through various institutional arrangements,” Pascoe stated.

Beefing up its own training and sensitisation efforts in the last few months, the national praedial larceny prevention and coordination unit in executing a number of training with key stakeholders, he said has been seeking to plug a number of the gaps as it shed light on existing policies in order to have more informed stakeholders, especially farmers.

“Praedial larceny is not a new and it’s not the first time that we are having this challenge which affects almost every country in the Caribbean that grows agricultural produce. We therefore need to have those laws that ensure that they deal with offenders, eliminating any chance for them to reoffend.

“I’m confident that we are now building that framework which will overtime deter criminals. With much stronger enforcement and compliance, it will become very difficult for offenders to infiltrate the framework we have. The Act and legislations are not to be seen as a silver bullet but is to, along with the multi-pronged strategy we have been using, seek to ensure that all stakeholders have a role to play in dealing with this very complex issue which cannot be seen as just black or white,” Pascoe concluded.