Plans to introduce new anti-praedial larceny measures, requiring the use of sales receipts certified by the Jamaica Agricultural Society, ran into serious roadblocks in Parliament yesterday.

At a meeting of the Joint Select Committee examining the proposals at Gordon House, concerns were raised by a number of the members, including Senators Bruce Golding, Delano Franklyn, Anthony Johnson and Norman Horne, as well as opposition spokesman on Agriculture JC Hutchinson and even the Minister of Agriculture himself, Roger Clarke.

In the end, the committee decided that a sub-committee would meet on January 13 to study the issues and report back to, it is hoped, the final committee meeting, which is expected by month end.

The proposals are contained in a Bill entitled, An Act to Amend the Agricultural Produce Act, and are aimed at crippling the thriving sale of agricultural produce stolen from farmers by praedial thieves. The JAS says that praedial larceny is costing farmers $4 billion, or 25 per cent of their produce, annually, although no evidence has been produced to support the figure.

Minister Clarke, who supports the proposals which emanated from the JAS, wants the issue of who is responsible for receipt books to be used by traders in agricultural produce and exporters to be cleared up before the committee starts drafting a report to Parliament.

That issue arose after Assistant Commissioner of Police Reggie Grant, who is in charge of police enforcement of the measures, suggested that all receipts should come from the JAS. However, JAS president, Senator Norman Grant said that the society was only prepared to handle receipt books for farmers.

The receipt books are the basic ingredient of the process in which it is proposed that farmers give official JAS receipts to purchasers of their produce. The police will then have the authority to arrest persons found transporting agricultural produce without the proper certification and the fines could range as high as $250,000.

Although there was a general understanding, from the outset, that the Bill was controversial in parts, Minister Clarke is seeking consensus on the report which the committee will eventually forward to Parliament for approval to, “send a clear message of unity”. But, the number of concerns raised yesterday suggests that he could have some difficulty achieving consensus.

Hutchinson raised the issue that, under the new measures, police action would not be driven by information or intelligence coming out of the farming community which, he said, was essential to getting to the heart of the problem.

Senator Horne was concerned about the JAS being authorised to issue receipt books, as he felt that “politics” could seep into the practice.

Senator Golding said that there was a need to ensure that the process is just and that there is an appellate process. He said that the issuing of the receipt books would be a statutory function which the JAS did not have the authority to perform.

Senator Golding said that a whole new section needed to be added to the Act which would, among other things, create a link between the JAS providing the farmers with receipt books and the registration of the farmers by RADA. He said that there were wide implications of the Bill which had not been taken on board.

Senators Golding and Horne felt that RADA would be better equipped to handle the process than the JAS. But, Senator Grant insisted that the JAS had been spearheading the proposals and the current ones seemed most applicable. He said that, in any case, the farmers would be playing the major role.

Senator Franklyn said his concern was about the “willy nilly” process of registration. He suggested that the stakeholders seek further legal guidance before the final draft while Senator Grant admitted that the parties could “regroup” with the legal advisers to look at the issue again and create a clause to legitimise the process.

Senator Johnson said that the country was not socialised to the point where a system of using receipts for the sale of farm produce would be effective. He said that most people were not accustomed to the process and some were illiterate.

ACP Grant said that his information was that the farmers were more concerned about paying a fee, than the registration process. The committee was told that RADA was contemplating a $50 per year registration fee, but that the JAS had not yet decided on how much it would charge the farmers for the registration books.

Senator Horne said that it would be almost impossible to regulate the matter, as the bureaucracy involved in dealing with hundreds of small and intermediary dealers would create congestion. But, Minister Clarke said that the farmers would prefer the bureaucracy to the losses they are suffering from praedial larceny.