Amid all the news that came to the fore last week was a story of innovation that reinforces an argument we have long advanced for significant funding to encourage more research and development (R&D) in Jamaica.

The story is of Mr Hopeton Henry and his invention of what he calls a Smart Free Energy Water Pump System, which, he says, can revolutionise the way crops are irrigated if utilised on a large scale.

According to Mr Henry, the system can irrigate crops without the use of a generator that would require gas or diesel for power. He got the idea to create the system last year while preparing a project for the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA).

Mr Henry told us that he had gone to a cassava farm in Summerfield and noticed there was a lot of idle land despite a river being about 100 feet from the farm. The farmers, he said, were using a diesel generator to pump water from the river for irrigation, the upshot being that not all the land was being cultivated.

“So I figured that I could come up with a way to pump water from the river without using gas or electricity,” Mr Henry said, explaining that he engaged in research which informed him that many communities have access to a river, stream, spring, or other water source that they could tap into.

Mr Henry also told us that the system is designed to operate without supervision once it is installed, as it can be powered through a smart board connected to a cellphone. He also boasted that the smart feature enables the system to refrain from pushing water to farms during rain.

We have no doubt that there are more Hopeton Henrys in the country. Jamaicans who have the ability to formulate solutions to many of the challenges we face. Indeed, we have seen the works of such brilliant individuals in the past. However, lack of adequate funding has been common to their experience.

No one can successfully challenge the argument that the application of science and use of new technology are key drivers of economic growth.

History records that the industrial revolution in Britain was propelled by a series of transformative technological inventions by individuals using their own resources. Additionally, the United States’s dominance of the world economy in the 50 years after World War II was based on science and technology in defence funded by the US Government.

We are told that developed countries spend two to four per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) on R&D. The spend is much less in developing nations, which is one of the reasons they lag behind developed nations.

However, we don’t yield to the view that developing countries are too poor to invest in R&D but, instead, should concentrate on acquiring the latest technology. As we have argued before, this argument is intuitively appealing but fallacious, and is also the antithesis of economic development.

In Jamaica’s case, we believe that the foundations of a vibrant science and technology industry already exist. But, as we said, it needs adequate funding.

We note that in 2019 the Government announced that it was budgeting $200 million that year in a special fund to promote research at local universities. That is a step in the right direction. Anyone who doubts that need only look at the fact that research at Cambridge University led to the production of cancer drugs and the creation of several multi-billion-dollar companies.

That type of achievement must be our vision.