Are we ambitious enough?

[Jangle]

A farmer trudges through a river in Portland with callaloo for the market. Jamaica must mechanise its farming industry and capitalise on food-processing innovations. - Ian Allen/Photographer



John-Paul Clarke, Guest Columnist

This is an excerpt of the keynote speech delivered at the Calabar Old Boys' Association's annual dinner on September 27.We are in many ways prisoners of our colonial heritage. For the most part, we still farm in the same way we did centuries ago, and we have done little over the years to produce the processed foods that are increasingly valued by a busy world.
I recognise that we don't have the vast plains of the United States (US), for example, to practise farming on an industrial scale. But our researchers and engineers have not ever been challenged by Government or industry - and given the appropriate funding - to determine uniquely Jamaican solutions to the challenges of farming in Jamaica. We can certainly point to the innovations of T.P. Lecky, but what else have we done with regards to the application of science and technology to agriculture?

Dr John-Paul Clarke, a Calabar old boy and aeronautic scientist, is associate professor of aerospace engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology and a member of the NASA Advisory Council Aeronautics Committee, and the US Army Science Board.

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/2...NWWIw.facebook

[Assasin]

how much time I talk about food processing. Look if England never stop take Banana and JP start make Banana Chip they wouldn't be profitable.

Put one Mango in a can with a little water and add a little preservative and you nice. tyad a talk it.

[Jangle]

Lee-Chin to invest in mega farm in St Catherine

Minister of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries Audley Shaw, has disclosed that a group headed by business mogul Michael Lee-Chin is investing in a major agricultural project in St Catherine.

According to Shaw, the mega farm, to be established on lands formerly occupied by Innswood Sugar Estates, will have mango and soursop orchards, cantaloupes, melons, and short- and long-term crops.

Delivering the keynote address at the Jamaica 4-H Clubs National Youth in Agriculture Symposium held on February 5 at the Northern Caribbean University (NCU) in Mandeville, Manchester, Shaw said Lee-Chin has taken over about 3,000 acres of land, and that Israeli technology would be utilised on the farm.

He called on persons at the function, particularly students, to choose agriculture as a career.

The minister said some 10,527 young persons are in farming, representing five per cent of registered farmers, and while it is a “welcome improvement”, the ministry’s goal is to see more youth “choosing agriculture as a career”.

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/n...m-st-catherine

[HL]

Two very good articles Jangle!

Toyed with the idea of investing in some form of agriculture in Jamaica...............

Oh, on a lighter note...they should drop the term 'mega' from farm (for now) .