Agricultural experts have expressed concern over an increasing number of youths exiting the sector.

Recent data published by the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (Statin) show a decline of 6.9 per cent or 13,000 employed persons in the occupation group ‘Skilled Agricultural and Fishery Workers’. The decline in the sector’s workforce comes against a backdrop of record-low unemployment rates across Jamaica.

Some of the worst affected areas of the sector include the coffee industry, which has seen a drastic decline in farmers over the past two decades, dropping from 15,000 in the year 2000 to less than 5,000 coffee farmers today.

“We can’t get people to work. People are moving out of farming,” Donald Salmon, president of the Coffee Growers’ Association, told the Jamaica Observer in an exclusive interview. “We can’t guarantee employment to the people and so they are going somewhere else to get work.”

More people are looking to take up jobs under the occupation group ‘Service Workers and Shop and Market Sales Workers’. But the largest increase in workers stems from the industry group ‘Real Estate and Other Business Services’ which includes workers from the business process outsourcing industry commonly referred to as call centres, and ‘Construction’.

“The agriculture sector is suffering from limited financial resources and funding. But the fact is that when youngsters look and see the tourism or financial services industry being propped up, nobody is going to be interested in agriculture,” president of the JAS Lenworth Fulton said.

Despite its declining employment numbers, Jamaica’s agriculture sector currently contributes roughly 8.3 per cent of GDP. Agriculture Minister Floyd Green aims to get it to the ninth mark.

To hit that target, the Government will provide about $1 billion in production incentives and $800 million to the farm road programme. Additionally, works on irrigation systems in Parnassus in Clarendon and Amity Hall in St Catherine are targeted for completion this year.

Climate conditions, praedial larceny, financial constraints, labour shortages, and inadequate infrastructure development are named as some of the main challenges within the sector.

“When you look at the goat production, we are seeing where the Government has been pushing resources to that segment of the market. Other quality breeds have been brought into the market to upgrade our local stock,” Denton Alvaranga, first vice-president of the Jamaica Agricultural Society (JAS), said.

“But I don’t think the quality of the stock is really the issue; it’s really praedial larceny. What you find is that these animals are very expensive, any theft would have a serious negative impact on the farmers and so farmers are just moving away from goat production.

“They are losing their livelihoods and they are losing their lives. So praedial larceny is the greatest deterrent to getting into goat production or even the farming business in general,” he continued.

He added that while there are efforts to minimise the number of animal or crop thefts across the island, the issue remains a complex one as farmers often shy away from reporting the issue when they find out who the masterminds behind the criminal act are.

Regarding the labour shortage issue, suggestions have been proposed for the importation of labour, but agriculture experts remain averse to the idea.

“It’s pathetic that most of those who agree on the importation of labour have their eyes set on the exploitation of Haitians. If you ask where they are going to get the labour from, the first place they are going to tell you is Haiti,” Fulton said.

“You can’t take them here because if we can’t pay farm workers reasonably here, how are you going to take in imported workers, put them up, feed them and pay them better?” he continued.

The executives of the JAS say a better path forward would include the development of a set of policies that not only boost productivity across the sector but also attract younger people to the sector.