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Fulton calls for better use of Minard festival

Published:Saturday | November 16, 2019 | 12:00 AMCarl Gilchrist/Gleaner Writer
Children enjoy a game of dominoes at the Minard Livestock Show and Beef Festival.
A little girl touches a heifer at Minard Livestock Show and Beef Festival.
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Jamaica Agricultural Society (JAS) President Lenworth Fulton, has said the government agencies should make better use of opportunities presented at the Minard Livestock Show and Beef Festival to educate young people.

Speaking with The Gleaner while attending the 2019 edition of the show in Brown’s Town, St Ann, on Thursday, Fulton hailed the organisers for presenting a bigger show this year.

“It looks like the crowd this year is bigger, but last year was also big and it’s proving to be one of the most important shows for schoolchildren from all over Jamaica to come, and I sincerely hope that the other ministries, the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education will use this as a platform to communicate to children in a setting like this,” Fulton suggested.

According to the JAS boss, the Government is not maximising the use of the event.

“I don’t see the Ministry of Health here in any significant way. I know that a senior education officer is here, but it needs more than that and we expect more than that from our ministries, not to see the show as just an outing for children, but in a setting like this to communicate to them about food safety, about food security, about other very pertinent issues that are not best taught in the classroom, but could be demonstrated in a setting like this.

“I’m not quarrelling with them, but I think they should look at the history of this show and know that more and more children are coming out, more and more teachers are coming out, and great effort made to transport them from every single school across Jamaica, we should use the day better,” Fulton said.

Meanwhile, Dr Al Powell, chief executive officer of Agro Invest Corporation, owners and managers of Minard, said the event this year was better than in 2018.

BIGGER AND BETTER

“This year is better in many ways, the animals are looking better, more people appear to be in attendance and the sponsors’ booths are larger, and it’s because the show is becoming more important. See how many schoolchildren we have, hundreds of them, perhaps thousands,” Powell said.

Over 80 schools, at all levels, were invited to the event and most accepted, with an estimated 4,000 students believed to have been in attendance.

Powell said targeting the schools means reaching out to young people, and that is the category that agriculture needs.

“So we want more (young) people to be in agriculture because the average age of farmers in agriculture now is perhaps about 58 or 57, so we want younger people so there is a great focus on young people involvement in agriculture.”

Powell declared the event a success and expressed delight with the organisation of the event.

With thousands of persons in attendance, the show offered a wide variety of activities, from bounceabout and rides and clowns for the younger children to the exciting animal scramble, to sponsors’ booths with loads of information on topics mostly related to agriculture, to food stalls with varied menus, and was well received.