Ronald Thwaites | We must invest in agricultural education

Tell me which agricultural commodity in Jamaica is not in the doldrums of underproductivity or unprofitability right now.

Even ‘the queen’, ganja, as Mr Seaga has called it, cannot get off the ground due to bureaucratic and financial constraint.Agricultural imports this year will likely top US$1 billion, multiples more than we ought to be earning from exports which diaspora and crossover markets abroad are anxious to buy from us.Even the ebullient Ed Bartlett has had to bewail the disgracefully low retention of the tourist spend, largely because the agriculture sector supplies little to the hotels. And every roadblock imaginable has been erected to stall the introduction of good Jamaican food into the school nutrition programme.Kudos to Sandals, which reported increased custom with local farmers, and to Jamaica Producers for their initiative to provide bananas to educational institutions. They are exceptions.

The activities of the Linkages Council appear to be bearing little fruit because they operate without any clearly defined national campaign which has measurable objectives.Now that everyone, for the first time at last, has recognised that the application of labour, capital, technology and human wit to the land is the real answer to sustainable prosperity, it is time to set about achieving this goal.Recently, the College of Agriculture, Science and Education (CASE) marked the 109th anniversary of agricultural education in Jamaica. This is the heritage of Archbishop Enos Nuttall, Dr Thomas Lecky and the recently mourned Rev Dr Garnett Brown, among many others. As a premier national institution for tertiary training and research in its field, this college deserves far more interest and investment than it is getting.One purpose of this writing is to advocate a doubling of the allocation to agricultural education in the upcoming Budget if we are really serious about inclusive gross domestic product (GDP) growth.

The nation needs CASE to double its enrolment.

The CASE campus at Passley Gardens in Port Antonio, Portland, needs to be complemented by an agriculturally oriented high school nearby to enable young persons with an interest in any aspect of rural development, commodity production and agro-manufacturing to transition into the college.

The programmes offered at the certificate and degree levels should be oriented entirely to the craft and business of production from the land.

There should be regular extension programmes to certify existing farmers.There is plenty of fertile land in Portland, and CASE must operate an efficient and profitable business as an opportunity of work-study and apprenticeship for students, a powerful statement about effort, opportunity and profit to the nation, a means of cost-sharing with government, and an antidote to the pervasive freeness mentality.I surmise that the present leadership at CASE is up to the task but they need partners.By all appearances, we are spending big money with secret Israeli interests to upgrade national security.

It is arguable that crime reduction could better be served if we partnered with them in agricultural science.‘OLE FARMERS’

‘Ole Farmers’, that hearty band of alumni, dispersed all over the world, attest to the quality and practicality of their education by their consistent and growing support for their college. Contributions by individuals and the business establishments, which benefit from staff trained at CASE, should be tax exempt.We talk incessantly about joined-up government. Agricultural education requires integrated intersection between the ministries of education, agriculture and tourism, among others.

The turgid silos of the State have made this fitful up to now.It is time to mash down the Babylon of these separate kingdoms. It will be wasteful to train effectively, only to frustrate graduates into the embassy lines because there is no effective land reform, no available credit for agri start-ups, and unfulfilled promises regarding nimble marketing.

In great measure, we are the architects of our own underdevelopment. At CASE, recently, I was served a meal, prepared by students with mostly local ingredients, which rivaled the quality of any hotel restaurant.

But we issue many work permits despite local talent.Then, too, I learned that motor car loans exceed agricultural credit even at credit unions.

And I met a Jamaican-Canadian investment broker who, where local credit is shy, has overseas capital for agricultural investment in Jamaica but is choking in the Sargasso Sea of the local approval process.I am sure the Government means well in their efforts to transform agricultural education but they cannot do it alone.Someone who shared an expansive vision of CASE’s potential – ‘Portland University’, he called his dream – was the mild, thoughtful and incisive Lynvale Bloomfield for who we now grieve. His gentleness was never weakness.

Ronald Thwaites is member of parliament for Kingston Central and opposition spokesman on education and training. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.