AS supply chain issues and inflation force more countries to evaluate their food security predicament, Jamaica is moving to ramp up its food production by integrating technology more in agriculture.
Speaking at a recent Jamaica Promotions Corporation (Jampro) webinar under the theme 'Technology-driven Agribusiness', Jampro President Dian Edwards noted that "the Caribbean is one of the regions that is most food insecure in the world and Jamaica alone imports US$1-billion worth of food and that is actually crazy considering the volume of land that we have here, 400,000 plus acres that we are not using or not using to its potential. So, by bringing technology to bear on agriculture, we can really start to transform agriculture and I think there are a couple of things we really need to do to become a success."
She explained that "if we can save money on the imports we are going to be much further ahead. But in addition to that, the potential that we have to grow a number of our products in a controlled environment where we take away the vagaries of the weather and where we're looking at a controlled, almost industrial-type production; we can stop being a nation of samples and really become a nation of high-producing, quality standards, certified production for export."
Jampro's Agri-business Manager Marlene Porter noted that some of the technology-driven projects are already in train.
"We already have projects that are on the ground here now in Jamaica that is utilising this technology; for example, the Lakes Pen project, where we are seeing greenhouse production taking place. That particular project utilises Dutch technology. We also have projects using Israeli and Spanish technology."
She continued: "Restaurants of Jamaica (ROJ) is already operating in the space where they have set up their own greenhouses as a way of creating the sort of backward linkages to support their restaurants."
In the same vein, Edwards highlighted that "the Government is now going into a US$105-million cold storage project and this project is going to help us to reduce the losses that small farmers are facing because they are not cooling their produce before it leave and so they're having a very short shelf life and they're only in a fresh produce value chain."
"We are losing something like 30 per cent of our fresh produce in the field which is really criminal and I feel it for every small farmer who goes through the peaks and troughs of production glut and famine, issues of praedial larceny, etc," she stated.
Co-founder and COO of Alquimi Renewables LLC & Island Growers Caribbean Ralph D Birkhoff, who is one of the recent investors in Jamaica's technological agri-business drive, agreed but stressed that "it will take a partnership, our company has been developing projects across all the islands and we have engaged with governments that range from refusing to talk foreign investments in agriculture to what I think Jamaica and Trinidad are now doing at the ministerial level and really creating a road map for investors to follow that they're used to seeing from other countries."
He further contended that "we constantly see politicians at podium talking about food security, import substitution and growing the entire agricultural sector in their country but the civil service doesn't know anything about that, their processes are not set up to actually support that drive; so there's got to be a flow through from policy to law to the civil service, everybody has got to be on board."
He noted that cooperation is also needed to ensure that investors can bring in equipment which fits into incentive schemes. With respect to those concerns, he said talking with customs and the finance ministry about duties and concessions is imperative. He said there must be a balance between taxes and the apparent job creation benefits as well as reducing food imports and increasing local food production.
Meanwhile, the Jampro president highlighted that "we have been a nation of small farmers and largely subsistence because the big farms are all about sugarcane and bananas, etc, and owned by multinationals," but she stressed that "we do not want small farmers to be left behind, things like vertical farming and greenhouse production; we want to see that spread across the country and not just be for the big man."
