CHRISTIANA, Manchester — Young people in this north-east Manchester town are being urged to shift their focus from the illicit lottery scamming scheme and put their skills to use in farming.

Councillor Omar Miller (Jamaica Labour Party, Craighead Division) made the appeal during an interview on Monday at the annual Manchester Farmers’ Fair at Christiana High.

“Young people have options instead of going into scamming. We want to introduce young people to farming and show them that farming is something that they should gravitate to. We have to work to bring back this country and try to get down the crime rate,” he said.

“If we want to beat scamming, we have to support young people and support farming,” Miller added.

Official figures from the police show 42 murders in Manchester up to October 20, an almost 17 per cent increase over the 36 recorded for the same period last year. The parish has also recorded 36 shootings, nine per cent above last year’s figure.

Police and political leaders have attributed recent murders in the parish to lottery scamming, resulting in the constabulary imposing curfews and restrictions on entertainment events in some communities.

Miller, who is also the minority leader in the Manchester Municipal Corporation, reiterated his support for the police in their strategies to curtail crime.

“We have been trying to work hard and support the police as it relates to people saying that the lockdown has had implications in terms of their livelihood. We just want to show solidarity and support so that we can have fun,” he said in reference to the farmers’ fair.

The fair, organised by Miller, was deemed as a success this year.

“This farmers’ fun day is now in its 10th year. It entails a football knockout competition with about 30 teams from all over the constituency. We also had a netball competition with 10 teams from across the constituency and a domino competition. We also catered to the children,” Miller said.

“It is all about the farmers. We had the raffling of cows, goats, pigs and bags of fertiliser and hundreds of chickens among other prizes for farmers. We are trying to bring back farming in north-east Manchester and just encourage people that we can live together, socialise and celebrate our heroes,” added Miller.

“It takes a lot to have this competition and we require more support [but] we continue to thank companies like Hi-Pro, Newport-Fersan and also the Member of Parliament Audley Shaw for his support,” he said, adding that Prophet Roydel Rowe and Dr Greg Newman donated books, laptops and tablets for children who attended the event.

Rowe, who is an aspirant for the Jamaica Labour Party in the Christiana Division, said he is supporting people in north-east Manchester.

“We know that our people need to be educated and Councillor Miller has done his best to arrange this event. A lot of people do not have any phones, so we distributed 70 laptops and 80 phones and a lot of tablets were also given away,” he said.

“I am interested in the Christiana Division, so I have been going around trying to fix the roads, helping the higglers in the market and helping to build some stalls, and stocking a lot of shops. There are a lot of people whose houses do not have any zinc and people have leaking roofs, so I am going around trying to fix as many houses as possible. We are doing a lot for supporters of both the PNP and JLP,” he added.

Miller reiterated the importance of the agriculture sector and the enthusiasm among farmers who attended the fair.

“Farmers look forward to this event because they can come and get tools, they can come and get seeds, they can come and get fertiliser, it is good when you can recognise farmers and also encourage them because farming is the feeding of the nation and we have to continue to support our farmers,” said Miller.