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Not so, Roger
Tufton denies agro minister’s no-market claims
BY BALFORD HENRY Senior staff reporter henryb@jamaicaobserver.com
Monday, May 13, 2013
FORMER agriculture minister Dr Christopher Tufton says he welcomes the interest being shown in the expansion of cassava production in Jamaica, but has denied the claim by current minister Roger Clarke that he did not develop the market for the produce.
"When we went on this big drive to plant cassava, the people planted, and those cassava, some of them still in the ground now, not reaped," Clarke told a post-budget briefing at his ministry Thursday.
(L-R) CLARKE... the people planted, and those cassava, some of them still in the ground now, not reaped. TUFTON...if he had checked the archives, he would have seen that there was a major shortage, due to an increase in demand
(L-R) CLARKE... the people planted, and those cassava, some of them still in the ground now, not reaped. TUFTON...if he had checked the archives, he would have seen that there was a major shortage, due to an increase in demand
#slideshowtoggler, #slideshowtoggler a, #slideshowtoggler img {filter:none !important;zoom:normal !important}
1/1 
But on Friday, Tufton denied that there was no market to support his promotion of increased cassava production when he was the minister.
"If he had checked the archives, he would have seen that there was a major shortage, due to an increase in demand, two years after the initiative was launched," Dr Tufton told the Senate on Friday.
"Cassava price went up from $7 per pound to $20 per pound and the agro-processors association asked the then minister, yours truly, to allow for importation because of the shortage in the marketplace, which I refused," Tufton said.
Dr Tufton also pointed out that government member Senator Norman Grant, who heads the Jamaica Agricutural Society (JAS), in a motion tabled in the Senate at the time, had commended him for refusing the import permit.
"That's a matter of record. I am correcting the minister because the record must be clear, but I also advise him in a very respectful way to understand that if he is seeking consensus — because I am into that too — you need to do it in an environment where we are not trying to score points on everything not going well," he stated.
During his contribution to the sectoral debate on Wednesday, Clarke suggested that it might be worthwhile to use cassava in the school-feeding programme. However, at his post-debate press briefing Clarke blamed current cassava production failures on the lack of a market.
In 2008, under the previous administration, Dr Tufton in his budget presentation encouraged mass cultivation of cassava to improve food security. Although he was widely ridiculed for making the suggestion, between 2008 and 2011 production of sweet cassava jumped from 8,250 tonnes to 13,000 tonnes, while bitter cassava grew from 6,741 tonnes to 7,522 tonnes.
This prompted Tufton to declare: "You see what has now happened to cassava. It is now cassava chips that are regularly being consumed," in response to the cynics. However, since the present Government took office, cassava production has declined significantly.
Last week's incident was the second occasion during the current 2013/14 budget exercise in which Clarke has angered agriculture spokesmen.
During the House's Standing Finance Committee's deliberations on the estimates for the agriculture sector, Clarke told the MPs that potato farmers had fallen into bankruptcy because they received "bad seeds" from the former Government.
Clarke, who was responding to a question from the Opposition's current spokesman on agriculture, JC Hutchinson, said that farmers from South St Elizabeth incurred significant financial losses because they were provided with the wrong seeds.
"They got bad seeds, because the Irish potato that was given to them to plant was potato that should be cooked! And you know who provided those seeds," Clarke said.
But, in a response published by the Jamaica Observer days later, Hutchinson accused Clarke of contradicting his own budget presentation in May 2012.
He quoted Clarke as saying in that presentation: "Let me briefly address the matter of Irish potato. As we speak, we are experiencing a bumper crop not seen in the last two decades. In fact, production has been increasing sharply since 2008 from 4,929 tons to 15,333 tons in 2011. It is the expectation that the 2012 crop will exceed last year's production".
"Let me remind the nation that in 1995 the production of potatoes was 17,036 tons, and under the minister's watch there was the steady decline to 4,929 tons. In 2008, under the JLP Administration, it took only three years to increase the production back to the levels that it was in 1995," Hutchinson stated.
Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/...#ixzz2TCxQ1S1y
Tufton denies agro minister’s no-market claims
BY BALFORD HENRY Senior staff reporter henryb@jamaicaobserver.com
Monday, May 13, 2013
FORMER agriculture minister Dr Christopher Tufton says he welcomes the interest being shown in the expansion of cassava production in Jamaica, but has denied the claim by current minister Roger Clarke that he did not develop the market for the produce.
"When we went on this big drive to plant cassava, the people planted, and those cassava, some of them still in the ground now, not reaped," Clarke told a post-budget briefing at his ministry Thursday.
(L-R) CLARKE... the people planted, and those cassava, some of them still in the ground now, not reaped. TUFTON...if he had checked the archives, he would have seen that there was a major shortage, due to an increase in demand
(L-R) CLARKE... the people planted, and those cassava, some of them still in the ground now, not reaped. TUFTON...if he had checked the archives, he would have seen that there was a major shortage, due to an increase in demand#slideshowtoggler, #slideshowtoggler a, #slideshowtoggler img {filter:none !important;zoom:normal !important}
1/1 But on Friday, Tufton denied that there was no market to support his promotion of increased cassava production when he was the minister.
"If he had checked the archives, he would have seen that there was a major shortage, due to an increase in demand, two years after the initiative was launched," Dr Tufton told the Senate on Friday.
"Cassava price went up from $7 per pound to $20 per pound and the agro-processors association asked the then minister, yours truly, to allow for importation because of the shortage in the marketplace, which I refused," Tufton said.
Dr Tufton also pointed out that government member Senator Norman Grant, who heads the Jamaica Agricutural Society (JAS), in a motion tabled in the Senate at the time, had commended him for refusing the import permit.
"That's a matter of record. I am correcting the minister because the record must be clear, but I also advise him in a very respectful way to understand that if he is seeking consensus — because I am into that too — you need to do it in an environment where we are not trying to score points on everything not going well," he stated.
During his contribution to the sectoral debate on Wednesday, Clarke suggested that it might be worthwhile to use cassava in the school-feeding programme. However, at his post-debate press briefing Clarke blamed current cassava production failures on the lack of a market.
In 2008, under the previous administration, Dr Tufton in his budget presentation encouraged mass cultivation of cassava to improve food security. Although he was widely ridiculed for making the suggestion, between 2008 and 2011 production of sweet cassava jumped from 8,250 tonnes to 13,000 tonnes, while bitter cassava grew from 6,741 tonnes to 7,522 tonnes.
This prompted Tufton to declare: "You see what has now happened to cassava. It is now cassava chips that are regularly being consumed," in response to the cynics. However, since the present Government took office, cassava production has declined significantly.
Last week's incident was the second occasion during the current 2013/14 budget exercise in which Clarke has angered agriculture spokesmen.
During the House's Standing Finance Committee's deliberations on the estimates for the agriculture sector, Clarke told the MPs that potato farmers had fallen into bankruptcy because they received "bad seeds" from the former Government.
Clarke, who was responding to a question from the Opposition's current spokesman on agriculture, JC Hutchinson, said that farmers from South St Elizabeth incurred significant financial losses because they were provided with the wrong seeds.
"They got bad seeds, because the Irish potato that was given to them to plant was potato that should be cooked! And you know who provided those seeds," Clarke said.
But, in a response published by the Jamaica Observer days later, Hutchinson accused Clarke of contradicting his own budget presentation in May 2012.
He quoted Clarke as saying in that presentation: "Let me briefly address the matter of Irish potato. As we speak, we are experiencing a bumper crop not seen in the last two decades. In fact, production has been increasing sharply since 2008 from 4,929 tons to 15,333 tons in 2011. It is the expectation that the 2012 crop will exceed last year's production".
"Let me remind the nation that in 1995 the production of potatoes was 17,036 tons, and under the minister's watch there was the steady decline to 4,929 tons. In 2008, under the JLP Administration, it took only three years to increase the production back to the levels that it was in 1995," Hutchinson stated.
Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/...#ixzz2TCxQ1S1y
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