'Centre of Excellence' to open at Bodles

[Lazie]

PATRICK FOSTER, Observer writer fosterp@jamaicaobserver.com

Thursday, March 05, 2009

THE Ministry of Agriculture is to open this month a Centre of Excellence at the Bodles Research station in St Catherine that is expected to reposition agriculture on the curriculum of high schools and co-ordinate training and research at the tertiary level.
TUFTON... we are reviewing tertiary-level training for agriculture in the country
Arguing that agriculture has been heavily undercapitalised and treated like a bastard child by successive governments, Agriculture Minister Christopher Tufton said that the time had come to address a dearth of formal training in the sector to make it more viable.
"It (agriculture) does not afford the opportunity for formal training and research that would allow for an upgrading of the capacity of the sector," said Tufton.
Already a board of governors drawn from the University of the West Indies (UWI), the Scientific Research Council (SRC), and other entities involved in the setting of standards, has been established for the new centre, the agriculture minister said.
The revamp of agriculture training at the high school level should also include the return of designated agriculture schools in rural Jamaica.
Tufton said that the agriculture ministry received approval from the Ministry of Education for greater control over activities at Knockalva (St James) and Sydney Pagan (St Elizabeth) high schools that were originally established as agriculture schools.
According to Tufton, the schools have lost focus on agriculture and instead accommodate problem students as well as being under-populated.
"They have 50 per cent capacity of students and have actually been transformed to reform schools," Tufton charged.
"They end up spending more time dealing with issues of literacy and behaviour rather than agriculture," he said.
Bodles, which in its heyday formed a platform for noted cattle guru Thomas P Lecky, is being retooled to co-ordinate all the island's agriculture research while providing the base for secondary and tertiary training in agriculture.
Lecky, the first Jamaican to hold a PhD in agriculture, is responsible for the development of the world-renowned Jamaica Hope and Jamaica Red breeds of cattle.
According to Tufton, the Centre of Excellence at Bodles would, among other functions, become the fulcrum for agriculture research and activities at the College of Agriculture, Science and Education (CASE), University of Technology (UTech), UWI, and Northern Caribbean University.
"We are reviewing tertiary-level training for agriculture in the country," Tufton told the Observer, explaining that the Bodles Centre would also partner with overseas universities and institutions. In addition, trained personnel for the Rural Agriculture Development Authority extension service is also expected to flow out of the new centre.
Tufton charged that currently local tertiary institutions did individual research, which oftentimes had little impact on practical agriculture application for farmers on the ground.
"If we have a tomato problem in Jamaica its tomato research wants to improve production," he remarked.

[Mosiah]

I hear some great buildings can be made out of cow dung. Maybe they could try something at Bodles.

Hell, even human fae..why, where has all the time gone!

[HL]

"x-plane" yuseff.

than-x

[Mosiah]

Yuh nah follow di news, how di agriculture minister import fertiliser made with human faeces?

Is whey you deh?!?

[Willi]

It seems to be a vicious lie.

Y U fall for dis foolishness, eh?

If yuh stand fi nutten, yuh will fall for everything.

BTW, all organic waste can be transformed into something else when properly treated. How yuh so sure that the mango yuh eat nuh come from tree when man pee pon, or whey dog crap on? Also, what goes into bio-diesel?

How in God's name anyone could be selling pure unadulterated human faeces as fertilzer? Which factory worker, esp. in the USA would be handling that? Dat mek any sense to you? Steeuuuuppss.

[HL]

easy Willi...easy i say!!!!

[Willi]

Is high time for the politicians to put triviality aside.

One raaganaut tsumnami heading our way and them playing the same old tired games.

Dont they all realize what we facing?

[Mosiah]

Y U fall for dis foolishness, eh?

what you talking bout, willi(s)?

[Willi]

fertilizer brouhaha.

[Willi]

LETTER OF THE DAY: The farmer should be king
Published: Saturday | March 7, 2009


The Editor, Sir:
Every day we hear how there is an economic crisis brewing, but none of our leaders seem to have a plan as to how to ride out the storm. For too long, Jamaicans have lived the lie that says 'a foreign lifestyle is a better lifestyle', so we abandon our local foods in favour of foreign food, we stop walking because 'first-world people don't walk', and we drive fast on pothole filled roads because 'developed people drive fast up there'. The net result is an unhealthy, confused, lazy population destined to be a strain on our ailing health sector with 'First-World' ailments.

In The Gleaner of March 4, reporter Tyrone Reid had an article on the latest fad, 'Getting old'. I would bet that those centenarians reached their ripe old age with a simple formula; eat what you grow and grow what you eat. No talk of fast food or fast cars for those Jamaicans, just hard work and prayer. Yet, we teach our youth that becoming a farmer is not an achievement and that it is hot, sweaty, dirty work not suited for someone with good passes in CXC or with a university degree.

So our young leave school with their 'subjects' with nothing to do, while our adults complain about the rising cost of foreign goods. Whatever happened to the concept of 'self-reliance'? Why do we need to import inferior quality goods? Now we want to use suspect fertiliser because it comes from 'foreign' (just like mad cows disease)!

We can feed ourselves and put idle hands to work, but not without true cultural reform. Both political parties are guilty of promoting an alien culture on the people while giving lip service to our indigenous culture. The farmer should be king and the primary means to getting out of our economic mess. He should not be portrayed as an ex-slave etching out a meagre existence from the land, but as a modern technologist/entrepreneur using the latest tools to grow abundant produce.

productive nation

For decades we have squandered our opportunities to be a productive nation, preferring instead to follow the 'developed world' in the rampant pursuit of consumerism. Time has finally caught up with us and is telling us that we cannot afford a fancy stimulus programme. Therefore, the farmer and the manufacturer should be king, not the financial wizard or the distributors and retailers of foreign goods and services.

I am, etc.,

RUDY ROBINSON

[Willi]

NEWS

'BETTER THAN EXPECTED'
Organisers pleased with turnout at Agri-Investment Expo
BY PATRICK FOSTER Observer writer fosterp@jamaicaobserver.com
Saturday, March 07, 2009
ORGANISERS of the inaugural Agri-Investment Expo were stunned on Thursday after thousands of patrons turned up for the agriculture show at the Mona Visitors Lodge, UWI, completely surpassing expectations.
"Over the last three weeks before the show we were receiving numerous calls but even with that the turnout was really a pleasant surprise," remarked Herschell Brown, project director of the Agriculture Support Services Project (ASSP) in the ministry of agriculture.

Prime Minister Bruce Golding (second right) views a display at the European Union banana support booth during a tour of the Agri-Investment Expo held Thursday at the Mona Visitors Lodge, University of the West Indies. Accompanying Golding are Minister of Agriculture Dr Christopher Tufton (second left), permanent secretary in the agriculture ministry Donovan Stanberry (left) and Herschell Brown, head of the Agriculture Support Services Project in the agriculture ministry. The Ministry of Agriculture hosted the expo and the official launch of the National Food Security Programme, under the theme: Investing in Agriculture for Jamaica's Food Security. (Photo: Bryan Cummings)
The agriculture ministry hosted the one-day expo and the official launch of the National Food Security Programme, held at the Mona Visitors Lodge under the theme: Investing in Agriculture for Jamaica's Food Security.
"It was big," Brown declared after the show. "We had traffic pile-up to Liguanea".
Brown, who chaired the steering committee for the expo, said that he was unable to give specifics on the number of visitors, except that is was "far better than expected".
He told the Observer that the refreshing response has now dictated the expansion of the expo to other parishes.
"We are hoping to make it biannual and not only in Kingston, especially seeing the interest we had from this one," Brown said yesterday, adding however that it was too early to set a date for a follow-up expo.
"That depends on how quickly we can get interested people from this show into production, then we can move on from there," he said. "We are doing the tabulation and come next week we will be following up on all the people who showed interest in investing."
Prime Minister Bruce Golding - who delivered the main address to a jam-packed Mona Visitor's Lodge ballroom and showground - lauded the efforts of the agriculture ministry, saying that the revolutionary approach to the sector would involve partnership building between the critical stakeholders, Government and private sector interests.
"I am hoping that this will be the start of something profitable, something strong and developmental and the start of a new revolution in agriculture," said Golding.
He stressed the need for linkages such as agriculture and tourism while emphasising a need to view agriculture as a legitimate business opportunity at the cutting edge
of technology.
"Until that mindset is created, the industry will continue to be a sector that simply saps up excess labour, maintains that labour at subsistence wages and never becomes the driving force it can be for economic growth and development," he said.
Minister of Agriculture Dr Christopher Tufton, in his remarks, argued that agriculture represented the best opportunity for the country to overcome the immediacy of the global economic crisis.

[Willi]

IS AGRICULTURE THE ANSWER?
FRANK PHIPPS
Saturday, March 07, 2009
The state of the world economy gives cause for concern and the alarm has been sounded for the effect this will have on Jamaica. With the threat of widespread poverty in the wake of the world economic crisis, the use of land for agriculture is relevant as the country scrambles for responses to the global problem.
The Farquharson Institute of Public Affairs accepts that the people are the most precious resources in Jamaica and recognises that land comes next. But there are difficulties joining together the land and the people effectively in an agricultural programme in order to lessen the spread of ruinous poverty.
The Farquharson Institute recently invited specially selected people to make presentations on land for agriculture as the way for lifting the burden of poverty throughout Jamaica.
. Jacqueline da Costa, a former permanent secretary at the Ministry of Land and the Environment, gave an overview on land and what is available for housing and agriculture. A land policy which was prepared for government is little used and this is a point that must be dealt with urgently.
. Mark Brooks, a farmer and the lone voice in the wilderness as an activist for soil health, made a PowerPoint presentation on land degradation, showing how soil health matters, but not enough attention is paid to it.
. Dr Percy Miller, a soil chemist and a former research officer at the Ministry of Agriculture, pointed out that land settlements in the past were successful. However, the later Land Lease and Food Farm projects did not enjoy similar success because of insufficient funding.
. Hopeton Fraser, a former principal at the College of Agriculture, Science, and Education, said that the training for agriculture at CASE is a success story and graduates are making valuable contribution to agriculture.
. Lloyd Ellis, retired senior puisne judge, said: "We have the people, we have the land and we must get on with the job of implementing programmes for using available resources in the present economic crisis."
The Farquharson Institute was informed that most of the land suitable for agriculture is in private hands, and in many cases, land that was made available is used for commercial purposes or left unused in ruinate.
There seems to be an oversufficiency of wealth for land, labour, capital, and expertise that can be used in programmes for making agriculture the vehicle for the relief from poverty. Suffice it to say that when so many are at border-line poverty, the painful lessons learnt from projects such as Land Lease and Food Farms, must not be forgotten.
To avoid imminent disaster we must seek out those at all levels and across all divides in the society who can make a contribution to existing resources for agriculture. Government can provide the land and the expertise but the financial support from government is not there.
Here there is a challenge for the private sector, especially for the financial institutions to add more money for agriculture on less restrictive terms and frustrating procedure. Ultimately, it would be in their own best interest to take part in efforts to get the land and the people together as a response to the economic crisis.
While the government is moving to put its act together, the responsibility for "unleashing the economic potential among people" is not for the government alone. We are all involved in some way.
Frank Phipps is chairman of the Farquharson Institute of Public Affairs.
frankphipps2000@yahoo.com