EDWARD Seaga yesterday outlined a vision for growth and development in Jamaica, underpinned by a rejuvenated and technologically-modern agriculture industry, an expanded tourism sector and a reconfigured IT initiative.

In recent years at budget time, Seaga had tended to unveil his idea for a single major infrastructure or industrial project as the engine to drive growth in Jamaica.

But in Parliament yesterday the opposition leader changed tact and, instead, pointed to the possibilities if the island, utilising new techniques, was able to:

* put thousands of acres of idle land back into production of traditional and new crops;

* become involved in bio-technology;

* entice more visitors to Jamaica and increase hotel occupancy; and

* make a better go at the information technology effort that has been tried by the Patterson administration.

“The end product of this new-look strategy to utilise existing idle capacities is increased production, job-creation, foreign exchange earnings and economic growth,” Seaga told Parliament in his contribution to the debate in the government’s $211 billion budget.

“This is a tailor-made solution to some of the failings which confront the Jamaican economy. It presents a blueprint for which many elements are already in place awaiting expansion, or can be readily put in place,” he added.

“There are many other solutions to other problems, but priority must be given to building on what we already have and introducing new technologies to open new doors, as the primary objective.”

Seaga — his Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) seeking to unseat Prime Minister P J Patterson’s People’s National Party (PNP) in general elections to be held this year — framed his speech in the context of Jamaica’s relatively weak economic performance over the past decade, the need for growth and the potential crisis facing the country’s traditional exports because of declining real prices, evaporating preferences and increasing competition for alternative products.

“Niche markets must be developed in which Jamaica can establish a comparative advantage,” Seaga said.

In that regard, Seaga proposed the fast-tracking of a US$106-million proposal to irrigate 20,700 hectares (51,151 acres) of land, which could yield at least an additional $6 billion in agricultural output.

The opposition leader was particularly gung-ho about the possibilities for the island’s sugar industry, which, with production costs of upwards of 40 per cent higher than the world market, faces dim prospects when European preferences fall away in six years.

Seaga, however, pointed to new irrigation and management techniques being used by the Wray & Nephew-owned Appleton and New Yarmouth estates, that have increased sugar cane yields between 53 per cent and 84 per cent and the conversion ratio of cane to sugar by nearly 84 per cent.

“This opens a new vista for substantial unused, non-irrigated land in St Catherine and Clarendon which, if cultivated in cane using new technology, could increase production and value of sugar cane considerably, to some 300,000 tonnes of sugar, or more than twice the current level,” Seaga said.

On Wednesday, Agriculture Minister Roger Clarke had also pointed to some of these experiments and their results, but had said that a series of studies were being done as part of the effort to reduce the production cost of Jamaica’s sugar.

Seaga proposed, too, that following a successful experiment by the Jamaica Agricultural Development Foundation (JADF) with 125 hectares (500 acres), sea island cotton could be a successful and lucrative crop in the coastal areas of Clarendon and St Catherine.

He also said that marine shrimp was another strong possibility for the area, based on work done by the JADF.

Among the other agro-based initiatives proposed by Seaga were:

* sugar refining and the manufacture of other sugar-based products;

* hydroponics farming;

* bio-technology, including the development of neutracueticals, dietary supplements and flavourings and essences from Jamaican plants; and

* bio-extractions.

“Jamaica can move in the direction of setting up a dedicated science and technology park, which will treat Jamaica as one large bio-lab,” Seaga said. “The park would link those institutions involved in research and development locally and internationally for the more effective collaboration which would flow from a cluster of projects working together.”

On the issue of tourism, Seaga argued that Jamaica did not spend enough on marketing, hence a mere two per cent annual average increase in tourism arrivals over the past decade and declining room rates.

In order to push average hotel occupancy from 56 per cent to 70 per cent, the JLP leader said that the US$32-million a year promotion budget for the Jamaica Tourist Board should be increased by US$8 million.

“A compromise could be for government to provide an additional US$4 million, with the remaining US$4 million secured from re-direction of resources in the JTB,” he said.

Seaga supported the idea of the information technology sector to create jobs, but said that the programme was badly executed by the Patterson government, with the loss of $1 billion and few jobs to show.

“… Our approach is that an effective public relations programme would first be put in place to remove the stigma of bungling, corruption and ‘over-enthusiasm’ from the Jamaican information technology programme, wiping the slate clean to make a new and successful beginning,” Seaga said.