IN JAMAICA, farming is more important than in most other countries for several reasons. With 201,800 men and women in October 2004, it is our largest category of worker. Between 2002 and 2004, it lost 5,000 workers, but it is still 19 per cent of the workforce.
The sector has the lowest rate of unemployment. Officially, the average unemployment in 2004 was 140,000 and of that 6,200 were in the agricultural sector. If that sector were to have a 19 per cent unemployment like the rest of the country, we would end up with unemployment close to 200,000. Bear in mind that the entire commercial sector plus tourism has 284,000 while mining has 6,000. Farming alone has 201,000.
It is for that reason, that I am amazed at the low level of support given to the sector. In the early years of Independence, it always received the third or fourth largest budget, well over 10 per cent. It is now one of the smallest. In 1994/1995 it received $880 million, or 1.9 per cent which was a scandal, but in 2004/05 it received $1.7 billion which was 0.5 per cent of the total $328 billion.
Farmers are not asking for handouts. Farmers want and need state support - good roads, scientific advice, demonstration plots, access to new technology, marketing and distribution support and credit at reasonable interest rates. With less than one per cent of the budget, the sector has been placed under pressure.
