JAS questions proposal to import labour for local farm work

By Halshane Burke   

 

The Jamaica Agricultural Society is questioning the wisdom of the suggestion for labour to be imported to work on local farms.

 

Chief Executive Officer of the Rural Agricultural Development Authority Winston Simpson says it is proving more difficult to recruit people to work on farms.

 

Mr. Simpson says the acute shortage of hands may require recruiting workers from overseas.

 

But JAS President Lenworth Fulton says while the concern is valid, importing labour for primitive agricultural practices does not make sense.

 

He questioned the arrangements that would be made to facilitate the recruitment. 

 

"When we talk about the importation of labour, it make (sic) me tremble, because it was the genesis of importation of the labour that caused slavery, taking cheap labour from one place to the next and when they come here, they ill-treat them. Do we have barracks to put them in? Do we have systems to give them work permit, so that they are not disadvantaged here? We have to work these things out," he asserted.  

 

Mr. Fulton said farms need to be redesigned to take advantage of economies of scale.

 

"So if we could set up a system where we have a large acreage of banana once more, and contiguous acreage of any crop, then you could start to look on that. But our farm system is not designed that way. So we have some new designing to do, so that if people want to come here to work, and you can offer them a reasonable salary, then...they have at least 40 hours per week work for an extended period."

 

The JAS president has also called for the modernisation of the agriculture sector to improve productivity.

 

Mr. Fulton said the requisite technology need to be employed to bring the sector up-to-date. In addition, he proposed the government expand its agro-park concept and make land of commercial size available to more farmers. 

 

He lamented the lack of adequate investment in the sector, arguing that farmers should be provided with greater access to loans.