Ministry of Agriculture rolling out NAITS - How Jamaican Police with smartphones will Improve Meat Quality for Export while fighting Praedial Larceny

“What this means, for example, is that the tag which will be affixed to each animal will be linked to its records through the passport, which is really the animal's docket of information with data on its birth, DNA/genetic information and health status........This is very important, especially in the context of the provision of safe foods for both the local and export markets”

Chief Technical Director, Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Dermon Spence on Thursday September 25^th 2014 at the 12th AGM (Annual General Meeting) of the JPFA (Jamaica Pig Farmers Association) held at the Golf View Hotel in Mandeville

The Ministry of Agriculture has finally moved into the 21^st Century!

Derrick Kellier is now the man in charge of both the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries and the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, so he's the one responsible for seeing this through to fruition with the assistance of Chief Technical Director, Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Dermon Spence as noted by the Horses' Mouth, the Jamaica Information Service in the article “All Animals will be tagged”, published September 26, 2014 By Athaliah Baker, The Jamaica Information Service.

This as the NAITS (National Animal Identification and Traceability System) Initiative being spearheaded by deceased minister of Agriculture went lie on Thursday September 25^th 2014 with Biometric ID Tags available for Cows, goats and other Animals as state in the article “Ministry to implement animal tagging System”, published Saturday, September 27, 2014 9:07 AM, The Jamaica Observer and “Tags For Goats, Other Animals”, Published Saturday September 27, 2014, The Jamaica Gleaner.

This glorious news was announced by Chief Technical Director, Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Dermon Spence on Thursday September 25^th 2014 at the 12th AGM (Annual General Meeting) of the JPFA (Jamaica Pig Farmers Association) held at the Golf View Hotel in Mandeville. The computer software was in place and the Biometric ID Tags were in place in an effort to combat Praedial Larceny:

1.      Cows

2.      Goats

3.      Pigs

4.      Sheep

The System will also help with other aspects of animal husbandry such as animal health, identification and traceability as will be explained further in my article.

NAITS and Animal Husbandry – Improved Meat Quality while fighting Praedial Larceny

Most interestingly, the process of Registering the animals and creating their individual Passports will result in the creation of a DNA Database as described in my blog article entitled “NAITS Initiative launched at Denbigh Agricultural Show 2014  – How May Pen Police will work to reduce Praedial Larceny with Drones to come by 2017”, that may eventually lead to the development of GM (Genetically Modified) variants of the animals.

Best of all, it's allow the Ministry of Agriculture to track animal quality up to the point of slaughter at the abattoir aka the Butcher shop with the intent of developing our capacity to produce various types of meat for export by meeting the following Food safety regulations:

1.      Good Agricultural Practices

2.      HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points)

3.      GMPs (Good Manufacturing Practices)

Best of all, with the Animal Passport allows each animal to be uniquely identified once the Biometric Tag is placed within the animals flesh and not on their ear or on their outside, where they can be removed. Thus stolen meat or animals can thus be easily identified by the JCF (Jamaica Constabulary) aka the Jamaica Police tasked with the recovery of stolen animals, whom I’ll refer to as the Special Praedial Larceny Police Task Force.

They'll be equipped with handheld smartphone or Tablets with RFID Readers built in to scan the animal or carcass of the suspected meat. Once the tag is found and the Database is queried and the results matched against the identity of the suspects and its determined that they’re NOT the owners of the animals, they can be formally charged and arrested as described in my blog article entitled “NAITS Initiative launched at Denbigh Agricultural Show 2014  – How May Pen Police will work to reduce Praedial Larceny with Drones to come by 2017”.

NAITS and the Drought - Reduced Praedial Larceny and Better Animal Yield for Export

In the long run not only will NAITS cut down Praedial Larceny in places as diverse as Trelawny, where the NAITS is in hot demand by the farmers suffering at the hands of Praedial Larceny thieves, but it'll also result in Better animals with better meat using smaller acreages of land that are hardier and can survive our frequent drought conditions.

The Drought has a 80% chance of continuing until 2015 due to the persistent El Nino Effect as stated by Minister of Water, Land, Environment & Climate Change, Robert Pickersgill in the article “Drought likely to continue into next year, Pickersgill”, published Monday, September 01, 2014 By Kimone Thompson Associate editor- features, The Jamaica Observer.

Alas he's been proven slightly incorrect, as with the sudden rains, the very same Meteorological Service of Jamaica figures relating to the Weather that Minister of Water, Land, Environment & Climate Change, Robert Pickersgill quoted have changed, forcing them to declare the drought over as noted in the article “Out Of Drought - Met Office”, Published Thursday September 25, 2014 by Jodi-Ann Gilpin, Gleaner Writer, The Jamaica Gleaner.

The Hurricane season has suddenly roared to life powered by the extra radiation coming through the atmosphere due to the slow collapse of the Earth's Magnetic field as we head towards a Pole Shift as predicted in my blog article entitled “ESA's Swarm Says the Earth's Magnetic Field is Weakening - How Weakening Magnetic Field results in hotter Summer Days and Hurricanes in Christmas 2014”.

So the ongoing NAITS Tagging program is bang on time. With support from the Special Praedial Larceny Police Task Force, Praedial Larceny will be down and animal yield will increase over the next five (5) years!