Recent farmers' market a financial boost - RADA head
Published:Saturday | May 28, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Christopher Serju, Gleaner Writer
ALEXANDER POWELL, chief executive officer (CEO) of the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA), has defended the recent farmers' market initiative for the financial liberation it has given local farmers.
"Farmers, for the first time, can buy back their fertiliser on a Monday morning. Farmers can now send their children to school. Farmers can decide on what they want to do," he declared at Agrofest 2011 held at Jamaica College on Saturday, May 21. "This is in comparison to some farmers selling the hotels and collecting the payments after 90 days. This is in contrast to farmers selling (to) other institutions and when they go to collect their money, they are told that that part of the product was spoiled and you cannot be paid for that," Powell said.
"The last few farmers' markets we've had, we have farmers making over $108 million, 127 persons passing through and when we look at the farmers' market, that is something to be encouraged," the guest speaker told the agricultural, industrial and food show hosted by the Kingston and St Andrew (Jamaica Agricultural Society) Association of Branch Societies.
"I know some persons are saying that the farmers' market is eating into some persons' livelihood. I don't generally know of anything or any system or any institution that can provide 100 per cent positives," argued Powell. "There must be some negatives in the process and if we have a farmers' market where we take 12 days out of 365 days, or one day out of 30 days, to empower farmers, to make them sell and go back to their communities with money in their pockets, it must be a good thing."
Extension service doubled
The RADA CEO, who said he was using the opportunity to "clarify a few things", defended the integrity of crop production figures put out by the agency. "Sometimes I go around and I hear people say that the things we are saying we are producing or have produced, the level of production can't be true. I want to make that clarification and to advise that the ministry is not putting out numbers that cannot be verified," he said.
While he did not offer any clues as to the identity of these detractors, Powell insisted that the same methodology used and persons responsible for putting out these figures over the past seven years were still being used. He did, however, explain that the first-quarter production levels for 2011, the highest since 1999, were due to the provision of additional infrastructure and personnel.
"Our extension service has been doubled and, I dare say, if you have a doubling of your extension service you cannot afford to be producing less than what you would have been producing before. So those persons who are cynical about the numbers, I would like them to examine the figures more carefully and ask the relevant persons for clarification, before we say these things are not true," Powell advised.
The show, which was the first parish event since the signing of a memorandum of understanding which see the agriculture ministry providing the JAS with $1 million in funding toward the event, saw a brisk turnover of visitors. Senator Norman Grant, president of the Kingston and St Andrew (Jamaica Agricultural Society) Association of Branch Societies explained that this was in keeping with the tradition over the years. Describing the show as a success, he told The Gleaner that a commemorative magazine would be published soon.