Highlighting the natural and historical correlation between the dairy industry and the nutrition and food security of Jamaica, president of the Jamaica Agricultural Society Lenworth Fulton and Seprod Group CEO Richard Pandohie are calling on the Government of Jamaica to explore the possibility of reintroducing fresh cows’ milk into the local school-feeding programme, which could act as a fillip to the industry.

According to Fulton, Jamaica’s population consumes between 65-70 million litres of milk annually; however, only about 25 per cent of that amount is produced by local dairy farmers. Notwithstanding, the JAS president argued that with the student population numbering approximately 800,000, the Government could tap this market by providing a pint or cup of fresh milk to each student daily.

“So in terms of reviving the industry, it’s one of the best industries to revive right now because we have the market right here for fresh milk. Can you imagine if we could give a cup of fresh milk to every child in basic school in Jamaica, if three days of the week we could give a cup of milk to every child in the primary school? And you know a lot of our children are undernourished, so instead of what we are giving them from the Nutrition Product Holding — bulla cake — taking foreign flour and foreign cornmeal to make a product which is pure starch, pure carbohydrate,” Fulton told the
Jamaica Observer recently.

“Despite what we tell people about the nutrition that we are giving our children, we’re still baking the bulla cake and the bun and stuffing them with it when we could revive a dairy industry and give a child a cup of milk every day. This could be complemented, when Otaheite apple is in season they get apples, when orange is in season they get an orange, when banana is in season all year round, they get a small banana. You’d have a healthier population, and you would grow them out so well that they would not necessarily fall to the diabetes and the chronic diseases that affect us now,” he continued.

Fulton proposed the reintroduction of milk in the school-feeding programme to be funded by the Programme of Advancement through Health and Education (PATH), asserting that the Government has the responsibility of ensuring a healthy population and subsidising education. However, he pointed out that the funds to purchase milk would not be directed to large corporates in the dairy industry but rather smallholder farmers with between 20 and 30 heads of cattle so they can scale their operations.

He estimated that by targeting the student population, Jamaica could could boost local milk production by 50 per cent.

For his part, Pandohie argued that the price of milk on supermarket shelves are too high, but could be resolved by increasing the volumes of local supply.

“I think we need to get the volumes up so we can drop those prices…I believe that if milk was more of a lower price, there would have been more consumption. And certainly, if we could produce at the right price and get into schools, that would drive production to another level,” he stated.

The Seprod Group CEO argued that linking the school-feeding programme with increasing local milk production must be seen through the lens of food security. In many countries, he said, children receive the right amount of nutrients through school-feeding programmes, which are taken from the domiciled agricultural sector.

“You know, when you look at countries who are best in practice, what they’ve done is that, they say that everything in the school-feeding programme has to come from us, from our land…And that is transformational because it now gives the farmers a volume to work with,” Pandohie shared.

“So I believe that the multiplier effect of driving that industry to something like a school-feeding programme is not understood by many of our policymakers,” he added.

Pointing an the Dominican Republic as a good example of the synergy between the dairy industry and school-feeding programmes, Pandohie said that more than 50 per cent of milk consumption takes place in schools.