High duties force supplier to halt import of kidney bean seeds

Denbigh, Clarendon:

Frustrated by the high Customs duties charged for red kidney beans to be planted in Jamaica, a St Catherine-based farm store owner has discontinued importing the seeds.

O’Brien Johnson, managing director of St Jago Farm and Hardware Supplies, said that with several applications to the Ministry of Finance for waivers being “thrown through the window”, he had no other option.

“I have a big issue with how they view these types of things when I have to pay 86 per cent [in duties], and to put that on to the cost of farmers, I stop importing it,” he said.

“These are imported seeds for farmers. How could you go and ask a man to pay 86 per cent [duty] on seeds to plant? So Jamaica will forever be importing red peas,” Johnson told The Gleaner following the handover ceremony of COVID-19 assistance vouchers for farmers on Thursday at the Denbigh Showground in Clarendon.

Not sufficiently appreciated

Johnson lamented that farmers were not sufficiently appreciated for the important role they play in the country.

“They don’t get the type of recognition and the respect [they deserve] being a farmer, and I want to change that because you can’t survive without farmers,” he said, pointing out that the culture goes way back, with many people thinking that farming is what you do when you can’t do anything else.

As a result, Johnson said, the profession is not looked at with dignity, but that perspective needs to be changed.

“Bear in mind, when you talk about farming, first thing come to a man mind is machete and that they work in the sun. It’s not like that now,” he said.

In his keynote address at the function, Agriculture Minister Floyd Green also addressed the issue, saying that farming had to be repositioned in a way that young people could appreciate agriculture as a prospective career.

“A young person who is now evaluating the space looking to a profession that can generate wealth and income should choose agriculture because no matter how far technology goes, it will never replace farming,” Green said to loud cheers.

Johnson also lamented the practice of arable lands being used for housing development, something he said would eventually kill the business.

Stressing that he is not against development, he said that the practice must be halted.

“You don’t just take production land and put up housing. We need to have a policy where we reserve arable land for agriculture and used marginal land for development,” he said, adding that it should be taken seriously as food security could be threatened.

Responding to Johnson’s land-utilisation concerns, Green said that he agreed with the principle of the sentiment. He added that the the ministry would have to look at how legal policy documents could be strengthened as land utilisation was a serious matter.

“That is the biggest threat. We have zoned lands for agriculture, but the problem is we have not put them to use, and you know what they say, ‘Anything stay too long …’ ,” the minister said.

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