Jamaica in soil-health crisis (Part 3) – the way forward

THE WORLD is in a soil-health crisis, to the extent that this year is the International Year of the Soil, so designated to focus on soil-health restoration.

And according to St Elizabeth farmer and soil-health advocate Mark Brooks, the situation in Jamaica is particularly dire.

To back up his claim, Brooks showed Rural Xpress several documents and newspaper links that discuss the issue. And just last weekend, Raymond Martin, chairman of Jamaica Organic Agriculture Movement (JOAM), was contacted to get the organisation's input.

"It is not a belief for JOAM. There is clear evidence that Jamaica is in a soil-health crisis. Farmers islandwide repeatedly admit that productivity has fallen in areas where unsustainable farming practices, such as land clearing with fire and synthetic herbicides, and where the use of synthetic pesticides and fertilisers dominate. JOAM was born out of the need to address Jamaica's soil-health crisis," Martin said.

Brooks is a member of the Ministry of Agriculture's Soil Health Technical Working Group, and recently he spoke about his frustration with those who should be putting measures in place to restore the island's soil health.

"Soil is a living thing - a living being. It's alive. It's full of life. We have to care for that life in the soil. We have to feed that life to feed ourselves. What we want the Jamaican Government to do is to get a full understanding of the policies required to get soil health going. [If not,] wi dead!" Brooks asserted.

What then are the challenges the working group is facing, and what exactly does it want to see happening?

Brooks said members are working in a "vacuum", and the "political side of Government [and to some extent top civil servants, i.e., permanent secretaries] has no real understanding of soil health and the serious impact it has on Jamaica, whether food security, economy, environment (including water), health".

FUNDING HURDLE

Also, "there is a lack of available funding from central government, yet there are numerous overseas funding sources that could be had if soil health was made a policy with a priority", the vegetable farmer said.

He wants the Government to activate the

12-point action plan that was submitted by the Soil Health Steering Committee to

the minister of agriculture and fisheries in September 2011, a brief called A Sustainable Jamaica By Growing

The Economy From Increased Agriculture Through Soil Health, The Way Forward.

Some of the actions the group wants are for the agriculture and environment ministries to adopt the soil-health concept into their policies, and to equip the soil labs

at the Agricultural Land Management Division and Plant Protection Unit at Bodles for them to conduct the necessary tests as per the Cornell Soil Health Assessment System.

They also want the Research and Development Unit at Bodles, St Catherine, to investigate green manure/cover crops that are suitable for Jamaica, and to investigate crop rotations, cultural practices and other systems to form an integrated management programme for improved soil health.

rural@gleanerjm.com