Jitters as the JAS mulls impending changes

WESTERN BUREAU:

President of the Jamaica Agricultural Society (JAS), Lenworth Fulton, is giving the assurance that whatever changes are made to the structure of the 124-year-old farmers’ body, stakeholders in the industry will be protected.

Fulton made the remark on Wednesday at the annual Hague Agricultural Show in Trelawny even as he prepares to have dialogue with a subcommittee charged with the task of steering the transition of the association from its present structure into a limited liability company.

“I can guarantee you in Trelawny, and all our farmers, that we will be taking a special interest in seeing that your interest is protected,” Fulton declared. “We know that one of the possibilities is probably to be a limited liability company and a foundation, but that’s a quantum leap to that position,” said Fulton.

Fulton said that he would be putting together a “high power” team to look at the Denbigh Agricultural Show and how its history can be preserved, while eyeing the prospects of commercialisation.

“There is no way that we are going to go through a transition and be worse off, and there is no way that the transition will leave any of you farmers and farm family behind, so in doing so, we’ll have to be careful how we operate and how we reposition the organisation,” he said.