Editorial | MOCA must put farm thieves in cross hairs

In the early hours of December 10, a goat farmer in March Pen Road, St Catherine, was shot and injured when his home was sprayed with gunfire. Which, in the context of crime in Jamaica, would not, unfortunately, excite too many people. Except that a few days before that incident, nearly three dozen goats, which were stolen from the injured man’s herd, were recovered in Portmore. They were on the cusp of being sold and headed to the butchers.

The attack, it seems, was a reprisal for the goat herder regaining his property. A few days after that shooting, in Grange Hill, Westmoreland, in western Jamaica, two goat farmers were found bound, shot and stabbed to death. Their goats were stolen.

These were not isolated incidents. And the problem is not limited only to goat herders. Stealing from farmers is common in Jamaica.

Indeed, the March Pen Road and similar incidents suggest that the praedial larcenists believe they can operate with impunity, except for those occasions when an alleged thief is held in a community and becomes the victim of a rough justice, which usually ends in his death.

Neither thievery nor vigilantism should have a place in a society that is based on the rule of law. Unfortunately, as with other elements of crime in Jamaica, while the authorities have for decades talked big, and offered myriad solutions for breaking the back of praedial larceny, little has happened to reverse the crisis. The solutions have not worked, were insufficient, or have been badly executed.

SEEN THROUGH FRESH LENSES

It is time for the problem to be seen, and approached, through fresh lenses. That must begin with viewing agriculture as a critical pillar of the island’s economy that creates jobs, has an impact on economic growth, and contains great potential for wealth creation. In other words, the sector has to be the subject of a new, sexed-up conversation.

In this regard, a few bits of statistics are worth noting. By the World Bank’s estimates, in 2020 Jamaica’s agriculture, forestry and fishing sector accounted for 8.6 per cent of Jamaica’s gross domestic product. The value of the output at the current prices was U$$1.19 billion. Further, based on domestic data, agriculture employs around 190,000 people – a figure that, in recent times, has gone as high as 220,000. Notably, too, about five years ago, an analysis by the then head of the International Monetary Fund office in Jamaica showed a strong correlation between growth in agriculture and growth in the broader economy.

Problematically, though, farmers receive no value for a significant portion of their output. Over the past decade or so, the anecdotal estimate has been that farmers annually lose between $5 billion and $6 billion to thieves. However, a 2013 study by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) found that farmers in Caribbean Community countries, of which Jamaica is one, lost up to 18 per cent of their production in praedial larceny. And that was deemed to be a conservative estimate. Most businesses, or sectors, could not take this level of hit to their production and survive. Agriculture losing 18 per cent of its potential income would be like, say, GraceKennedy forfeiting nearly $21 billion of its 2020 revenue.

Further, in that FAO study, 98 per cent of the farmers said they have been hit, at some point, by praedial larceny. Over 90 per cent agreed that the thievery was a significant disincentive to investment. In other words, not only is praedial larceny a lucrative business for the thieves, it is also a significant drag on national economies.

REACHES THE MARKETS

People do not steal this vast amount of produce for personal consumption. Most of it reaches the markets. It is to be a deterrent to this kind of activity that Jamaica’s Praedial Larceny (Prevention) Act allows for the appointment of agricultural wardens, with the powers of constables, to detect and prevent agricultural theft. These wardens were intended to be auxiliaries to the regular police. It is not clear whether any still exist, and if they do, why the system does not seem to work.

Additionally, the Agricultural Produce Act requires that “every person carrying on the trade or business of growing or rearing agricultural produce shall become registered with the Rural Agricultural Development Authority”.

People who also trade in agricultural products need licences to do so. They must maintain registers of the goods they buy and take to market, and also have receipts for their purchases. They are subject to inspections at any time. They must also transport their goods in specified vehicles.

At least, that what the law says. Our sense is that the system was never properly put in place. If it were, it was not maintained. It is in shambles.

In his first Budget address after the Jamaica Labour Party’s return to office in 2016, Prime Minister Andrew Holness promised that praedial larceny would be treated like organised crime, which it had clearly become. In that event, the farm thieves were expected to be in the cross hairs of the Major Organised Crime and Anti-Corruption Agency (MOCA). Two years later, Fenton Ferguson, then the Opposition’s shadow agriculture minister, echoed Mr Holness’ sentiment.

However, the prime minister’s edict has not been translated into policy. Jamaica has not brought the whole-of-government, multi-agency response to praedial larceny that the FAO report suggested should be the approach. Neither do we perceive that it is a matter that has been the subject of problem-solving research by our academic institutions, including the College of Agriculture, Science and Education, which is supposed to be Jamaica’s premier institution for educating farmers.

That training should not be limited to the technical aspects of growing things and caring for animals. It also has to be the advancement of thought, leading to solutions to tricky policy and related questions.