Whenever men speak the name of the late Mr Lynden G Newland it is invariably for his pioneering work in establishing the National Insurance Scheme (NIS), which has provided financial protection against income loss due to injury, sickness, retirement, or death, notably benefiting the poorest Jamaicans.

On Tuesday, Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Mining Mr Floyd Green announced the imminent establishment of a pension scheme for farmers, indicating the initial seed cost will be $1 billion.

Three years before that, Tourism Minister Mr Edmund Bartlett set up the Tourism Workers Pension Scheme to do what Mr Green is now about to do — “ensure that [these workers], like persons in other professions, can retire and have a pension”.

In time, we are sure, the names of Edmund Bartlett and Floyd Green will join L G Newland, echoing with the praises of Jamaicans whose lives will have been enriched after doing the back-breaking work that helped nurture their island home.

Making his contribution to the sectoral debate in the House of Representatives, Minister Green noted: “Unfortunately, some farmers just keep going, even though they are not so strong, because they are afraid [that] if they stop they don’t have anything to fall back on.

“I am pleased to announce that the ministry has started the process of designing a farmers’ pension scheme that will ensure that farmers, like persons in other professions, can retire… and have a pension.”

The story of Jamaican farmers is by no means a proud one. Going by the last statistics we saw, the average age of farmers is 55 years and the anecdotal evidence is that their children want nothing to do with their mainly small farms from which they eke out such a pitiful existence.

Mr Green will need to, like Messrs Newland and Bartlett, “push through and get it done”, as Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness said a year ago this month when his Administration honoured Mr Newland for starting the NIS in 1966.

We were pleased to hear Mr Bartlett, in his 2024/25 sectoral address, report that 9,447 hospitality workers were then registered for the Tourism Workers Pension Scheme which officially started in 2022.

“They have saved, in the process, $1.2 billion. When added to the $1 billion that we put and the interest that has accrued as a result of good management, we now have $3 billion in the fund,” Mr Bartlett stated.

Boasting that Jamaica became the only country in the world with a comprehensive pension plan for tourism workers, the minister said the scheme was designed to cover all workers in the tourism sector, regardless of their employment status or age, and this includes hotel workers, craft vendors, tour operators, red cap porters, contract carriage operators, and workers at attractions.

We hope that Mr Green will get the full support of the Government in setting up the farmers’ pension scheme, and that his announcement will not be just another election year promise. Indeed, they will be called blessed.

Mr Bartlett was quite fortunate to have had the solid backing of the late chairman of Sandals Resorts and this newspaper, Mr Gordon “Butch” Stewart, in advocating tirelessly for the tourism scheme.

On behalf of every farmer toiling under the hot Jamaican sun, we wish Mr Green every success in this endeavour.