President wants more farmers on JAS board
MONTPELIER, St James — Citing the lack of representation for a number of farmers, Jamaica Agricultural Society (JAS) President Lentworth Fulton says he is moving full speed ahead to recruit representatives of splinter agriculture groups to place them on the JAS board.
“The JAS has to change in this time into an all-encompassing body,” Fulton argued.
He noted that the JAS has a problem with the Jamaica Agricultural Commodity Regulatory Authority Bill, which he accused of dismantling the coffee, cocoa, and banana boards.
“All these boards are now null and void. What JAS has done, I call the Coffee Growers’ Association and give them a place on the JAS board and a secretariat at 67 Church Street. I did the same to cocoa, and they have a secretariat,” the JAS boss said.
“Now I need to put together a root and tuber association to cover yam, sweet potato, cassava, coco, and dasheen to put them together and to have a leader which will sit on the JAS board to defend their rights.”
He also said that a suitable farmers’ representative from St Elizabeth will be afforded a place on the JAS board.
“I also want to form a group, which is the vegetable, fruits and condiment group. The whole of St Elizabeth… and those people are farmers and have no representative and do not sit on the board. I want that group up so that they sit on the board. I have already contacted the pimento growers’ association and I am going to change that into the spice association, which will include the growers of turmeric, ginger, pimento, and I will have a member of that and place them on the JAS board so that the JAS board will become once again a true umbrella body,” Fulton said.
He was speaking at the graduation ceremony for 22 St James farmers who participated in the first-of-its-kind, six-month farmers certification training programme, which formed part of a partnership between HEART Trust/NTA, the JAS, and the St James Agriculture Branch Society. The graduation ceremony took place at Roger Clarke Exhibition Hall at Montpelier Agricultural Showground in St James.
The programme involved training in land preparation techniques, vegetable crop production, pest control operation, micro entrepreneurship, and conversational Spanish.
Parish manager of the St James JAS branch, Claudette Glegg, said she was happy that two youth farmers were among the graduates.
“The farmer of the future must be educated to farm his land in a way that he can maximise economic return consistent with environmental sustainability,” Glegg stated.
“Training was conducted at the Roger Clarke Exhibition Hall since April of this year 0—the first month of my tenure as parish manager.”
Fulton said that he will be moving to replicate the training programme in partnership with HEART Trust across the island.