This newspaper is broadly sympathetic to last week's call by several private-sector persons for bans on the importation of agricultural products that are, or can be, grown in Jamaica.
We, however, believe that is an issue deserving of less emotion and far more strategic thinking and coherent policy action on the part of the Government than we have so far discerned. At least, this approach was not particularly apparent in agriculture minister, Roger Clarke's, recent long presentation in Parliament on the state of the agriculture sector.
We do not imply that Mr Clarke did not have substantive things to say about specific projects and programmes to increase agricultural output, or that he did not identify successes. For he did.
Mr Clarke, for instance, flagged up the growth in potato production and in the output of ginger and turmeric. He also highlighted his plan for agro-parks, which we assume are good things that will drive agricultural output.
What Mr Clarke, however, failed to do was to make a definitive connection between his various programmes and the Government's overarching strategy for fiscal containment, economic growth and job creation.
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That the food import bill increased last year by only two per cent and that this was largely the result of higher imported prices for cereals or grains is, perhaps, significant. But that bill of US$959 million is more than 70 per cent of the country's nominal GDP, 14 per cent of its imports, and the equivalent of approximately 23 per cent of its trade deficit.
The food import bill also has to be viewed against the backdrop of government debt of nearly 150 per cent of GDP, several decades of little economic growth, deepening rural poverty, and youth unemployment of more than 30 per cent.
MANY OPPORTUNITIES
This newspaper - as apparently does the Government - believes that agriculture, which already employs an estimated 200,000 persons, is a good route to job creation and the rebuilding of rural economies, rampaged by the collapse of the bauxite-alumina sector.
Indeed, in a country where agriculture contributes more than eight per cent to GDP and under 40 per cent of the sector's output goes towards value-added production, it is estimated that up to a third of the its food imports could be substituted with domestic produce. Addressing this possibility, as well as promoting food security, may be initiatives trotted out by Minister Clarke.
We, however, believe that more clearly articulated and specific policy signals, especially in areas where the Government has full discretion over spending, are necessary to unleash the potential at which the minister hints.
Take the case of the Government's School Feeding Programme, regarding which Mr Clarke says it is his "intention ... to substitute imported butter fat with liquid eggs". We believe that unambiguous policy declaration would be better. He should, for example, give a specific time where at least 90 per cent of the inputs in school meals will be from locally grown products.
Further, Mr Clarke and his technocrats should be aggressive in applying tariff safeguard measures allowable under the World Trade Organisation's agreement on agriculture and introducing sanitary and phytosanitary schemes to 'protect' the health of Jamaican consumers by prodding them to consume local foods.
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