Earl Moxam, Senior Gleaner Writer
LONDON, England:
A dozen agricultural extension officers from Jamaica will be going to Costa Rica next month for training in greenhouse technology.
This comes courtesy of a technical cooperation agreement between Jamaica and the Inter American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), signed last week in Costa Rica.
Agriculture Minister Christopher Tufton, who signed the agreement on Jamaica's behalf, said those trained in Costa Rica will in turn share the expertise gained with local farmers.
Jamaica has been on a drive to substantially increase the acreage of farming using greenhouse technology, and according to the agriculture minister, this Costa Rican initiative will boost such efforts.
In a further development along those lines, Dr Tufton revealed that an agreement was also reached last week with technical experts in Spain who will be assisting Jamaica in the construction of greenhouse clusters.
Speaking with The Gleaner in London, on his way home from Spain, the minister said the technical cooperation with Spain was being spurred on by the growing presence of Spanish investors in the Jamaican hotel sector.
Accordingly, he disclosed that some Spanish hoteliers were considering getting directly involved in greenhouse farming as a means of establishing a direct link between their hotel operations and the supply of fruits and vegetables for their guests.
"We are encouraged that all of these investors are very willing to engage in backward integration to supply the hotels, and that a number of them will be actual investors in projects that will lead to these backward linkages."
Similarly, he said, there were expressions of interest on the part of some Spanish hoteliers in the establishment of fish farms to supply their properties in Jamaica.
It was important, he stressed, for Jamaica and other Caribbean countries to boost their agricultural production, not only to satisfy growing visitor demands but also to guarantee their own food security, in the face of rising prices and the diversion of some agricultural production as feedstock for alternative energy sources.
That search for increased food security has also led to Jamaica having discussions with the government of Costa Rica with a view to setting up several large cassava farms on mined out bauxite lands and complementary processing facilities.
This, according to Dr. Tufton, could see Jamaica lessening its dependence on imported wheat flour, the price of which is on the increase.
Cooperation with Costa Rica will also extend to the introduction of a new variety of pineapple from that country into Jamaica, he said.
Several of these initiatives are being undertaken with the support of IICA, which has collaborated with Jamaica in developing a framework to strengthen linkages between agriculture and tourism.
Ena Harvey, Hemispheric Specialist with IICA is also spearheading the establishment of the Caribbean Agro-Tourism Resource Centre, to be based in Barbados. This, she explained, will provide much needed technical support for countries seeking to strengthen the agriculture-tourism linkages.
