Mayor Harris calls for young bright farmers

WESTERN BUREAU:

Montego Bay' mayor, Councillor Glendon Harris, the chairman of the St. James branch of the Jamaica Agricultural Society (JAS) says the country must boost agricultural production in order to reduce food importation, which he says is burdening the economy.

Harris, who was speaking at the Rural Agricultural Development Authority's Primary School Garden Competition's award ceremony in Catherine Hall, Montego Bay, last week Friday, said the nation was not taking agriculture seriously.

"We have been joking with what we have here. Our fore-parents set the type of pace for us to be very successful as a nation. When you look today and see what we as a country owe... if you sell off everything in Jamaica, we still cannot pay our debt,' Harris said.

"When you take the situation of Jamaica today, that we are importing water and we have the best water in the world. When you check what is happening with Jamaica today, we import nine times the amount in dollars, then what we export," Harris added.

The JAS parish president went on to encourage the students who were in attendance to choose a career in agriculture, adding that the tertiary trained farmers were the most successful.

"Persons in Jamaica have a wrong perception of Jamaica and farmers. The Prados, those Sports Utility Vehicles were designed for farmers. The farmers are the ones that should have those vehicles because they have to go through the rugged terrain, the rough roads to go to their farms et cetera," continued Harris. "The reality is that, the older farmers are set in their old ways of production. You as younger persons must come and take the modern approach to agricultural production and show us the older ones."

Turning to the state of the nation's males, Harris said young men in Jamaica seem to be on a downward spiral and noted that, sooner or later, women would have only a tiny selection from which to choose their mates.

"Our boys are on a wrong path... if a nation loses the males, we are in trouble. So, gentlemen, rise up, rise up. God created men to lead the world and if you lead the household then you must lead the world," Harris said. "We are encouraging female farmers, female leadership, but, it cannot be at the expense of the male; it must be complementary.."

"I am doing some work at Montpelier Show Grounds now and you find that there are a hundred women wanting to do the work but you can't find 10 men. We did the community centre at Maroon Town, there were two men on the site and 14 women. What is happening to our males today? Walking on the road; their job is to hold up their pants; whole day, that's all the do - hold up their pants, or digging yam bank in their hand miggle," Harris said.