Farming in Jamaica

This is an excerpt of an article done by Jodi-Brown Lindo. " Country sides filled with lush green vegetation, arable lands for miles.......just turn anywhere outside of the corporate area and this description could fit most parishes. Faced with a possible food crisis these are seen as the strong foundations needed to enhance a farming sector in order to enable us to feed ourselves....... but is that enough?




Trevor Salmon lives in Santa Cruz but farms in Hounslow. In his early sixties he lamented that all this could have been prevented if the food farm initiative which had been launched in the 1970's had been maintained.

He believes that at the root of the problem in getting farmers to plant more is land.

He says farmers are forced to lease properties as most of the arable lands have been sold to persons who are not interested in farming.

"A lot of people who are not interested in farming get these lands and we have to lease it or sublease it from them," he said.

I agree with Mr. Salmon. As the island is turning more and more commercialized farming (throughout the island) is becoming extinct. Without the crops grown, their will indeed be a shortage of what we call, "ground food." They are LOTS of farmers, but very few buyers. The farmers are faced with having to increase the money they spend on supplies, tools, and even land space. They pass this on to the consumer, and with an economy that people are barely surviving people just simply cannot afford to buy certain produce anymore.

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