“It is somewhat underutilised right now; there is
the capacity for a lot more traffic to go through those pre-clearance centres”
US agricultural
attache to the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Jamaica, Morgan Perkins lamenting
Jamaican Farmers not exporting more crops
Jamaican Farmers, listen up as this article is all
about you.
Jamaican farmer are failing to produce crops for
export despite having receive clearance to do so as reported in the article “Farmers
Flunking ... Failing To Fill US Demand For Tomatoes, Sweet Pepper, Cucumber And
Other Produce”, Published Sunday May 22, 2016 by Ryon Jones, The Jamaica Gleaner.
So says the US agricultural attache to the Dominican
Republic, Haiti and Jamaica, Morgan Perkins, who states that Jamaican farmers
are missing out on a US$24 million worth Organic Foods Market.
Jamaica, through a MOU (memorandum of understanding)
between the JAS (Jamaica Agricultural Society) and the NACE (National
Association of Christian Educators) has preclearance to export 50 commodities
to the United States.
Despite this, Jamaica is still failing to meet the
demand for these agricultural products:
1. Bell
peppers
2. Cabbage
3. Carrots
4. Chinese
melons
5. Chinese
okras
6. Corn
7. Cucumber
8. Cucumbers
9. Eggplants
10. Irish
potatoes
11. Okra
12. Onions
13. Squash
14. String
beans
15. Sweet
peppers
16. Sweet
potatoes
17. Tomatoes
18. Turnip
green
This has resulted in a loss of revenue to the
country. Worse, Jamaica has a US Department of Agriculture, Animal and Plant
Health Inspection Service, Plant Protection and Quarantine, Preclearance
Offshore Programs at the Norman Manley and Donald Sangster international
airports.
So having your agricultural products inspected
before leaving the island is a fairly easy process, making it less of a hassle
as you know right then and there if your produce will be accepted, to quote Mr.
Morgan Perkins: “There are actual USDA
(United States Department of Agriculture) personnel at these preclearance
centre who are supervising inspection and fumigation of agricultural products
for shipment to the United States. This ensures that products arrive in the US
they are going to go through inspection much more quickly and going to
encounter much less problems with pest and diseases”.
So what's the cause of the short supply?
Improving
Jamaica's Agriculture - How Agricultural Towers use Landspace more efficient in
the City
It seems to be a matter of quality and quantity to
quote Mr. Perkins: “The products on that list that are not going to the US are
generally not going because they are not being produced in the quantity and
quality that need to be produced in order to go to the US. There is a lot of
demand for those products. So if you have a good-quality product, you can
easily get it into the big wholesale markets and it will be just swallowed
right up”.
Dominica seems to have the right attitude; they're
exporting million of dollars worth of produce, filing demand and displacing the
millions that Jamaica can potentially supply if our farming was more
structured. This as Dominica has learned to capitalize on America's harsh
winters, when production levels are lower, thus providing ready market for
whatever they produce at whatever price.
Drought is no longer an issue as with the increased
rains and proper water resources management, we can even grow onions as
explained in my blog
article entitled “Why
Onion Development Programme by Agriculture Ministry hints at Drought Resistant
Crops in the Future”.
The use of Agricultural Towers to allow plants to
grow 24/7 hydroponically and utilize aquaponics to fertilize the plants in a
climate controlled environment should be considered as explained in my blog article
entitled “How
IGES Canada Ltd Vertical Hydroponic Aquaponic Towers make low cost Organic
foods”.
Rainwater Harvesting would make it possible for
Agricultural towers to capture rainwater for irrigation as noted in my blog article
entitled “How
NWC’s Water Conservation in Drought 2016 means Rainwater Harvesting with
Digital Meters”.
Developing plants that require less water or even
seawater such as CARDI's Salt water loving Dasheen as explained in my blog article
entitled “How
CARDI's Salt Water loving Dasheen and Agricultural Towers can help Pacific
islands and Jamaica during Drought” would make Jamaican agriculture
efficient enough to produce the quality and quantity for the entire island and
for export.
Being as our farming is mostly organic, recycling
organic waste would make farming more economically feasible as noted in my blog article
entitled “Why
Knockalva Enterprises Limited can solve Jamaica's Organic Waste, Bio-Fuel and
Water Problem”.
Agricultural towers would make it possible to have
hundreds of acres growing produce but stacked vertically instead of spreading
outward, wasting land space already being wasted on burying Jamaicans as noted
in my blog
article entitled “Jamaica
running out of Burial Space - How to recycle the Dead as land for Agriculture
and Housing”.
The future of Jamaican Farming lies in Agricultural
Towers, which are more efficient in using land.
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