Agri ministry looking towards food security

Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, Dr Christopher Tufton, says his ministry is developing a food security and nutrition policy programme, to help define food security and how it can influence the nutritional requirements of Jamaicans.

Speaking at the launch of the 58th Denbigh Agricultural Show last week, Tufton said he expected that the policy would be completed before the end of the year.

The annual Denbigh Agricultural Show, staged by the Jamaica Agricultural Society (JAS), is scheduled for July 31 to August 2 in May Pen, Clarendon, under the theme 'Grow what we eat, eat what we grow'.

Tufton, the guest speaker at the launch, said the food security and nutrition programme promises to help in the coordination of all future food security initiatives.

Strategy needed

"All the data we have examined, all the authoritative sources, looking at the past, present and future, suggest that increasingly, the world must take more seriously the need to secure nutritional requirements in order to maintain stability," he said.

"If you look at the United Nations' Food and Agricultural Organisation, the buzz word is food security in terms of agriculture," he added.

He stated that it was no longer a requirement for countries to concentrate on services, while depending on others to provide their food supply.

"We at home have felt the impact of an overdependence on others to provide our food. Now, clearly, we can't provide everything we require, but I think the message must be quite clear that we need to establish a policy, a strategy, to at least have a critical mass for what we can grow,' he explained.

He said, however, that the policy would not just look at providing an abundance of food, but would also look at the nutritional requirements needed to enhance and sustain a healthy society.

Tufton stated that the ministry has also completed an assessment of the types of food products that make up Jamaica's annual US$850- million food import bill, to determine what percentage of these products could be replaced or substituted for local production.

"When you look at that number, what you find is that a fair amount of the imports are not replaceable, unless you decide that you are going to do without them. But, in terms of direct replacement, just about 40 per cent or so could actually be directly replaced," he posited.

He encouraged more members of corporate Jamaica to get involved in the agricultural sector.

"If we take a little time to examine how large that market-place is, I think we will reconcile and justify the need to spend even more time in the sector," he stated.

He reiterated that last year the combined efforts of Jamaican farmers produced food valued at approximately $106 billion, which represented a 13 per cent increase over the previous year.

Tufton said that number, in terms of output, represented the highest value of agricultural output since 2003.