'We must pay more attention to food security’ - PNP

Opposition spokesperson on Agriculture, Lothan Cousins, has called for greater effort by the government to avoid conflict in land use for housing and agriculture and to do more to provide titles for the thousands of Jamaicans who have historically occupied their communities.

He also called for more scrutiny of the policies of the country’s planning agencies.

Speaking at a title handing-over ceremony on Friday in the Havana Heights community of his South West Clarendon constituency, Cousins urged the government to "keep an eye on how we are using our land."

“We are seeing a lot of housing developments and a lot of investments but we aren’t seeing the same kind of attention being paid to how we plan for the use of our land - a very finite resource.”

Cousins said that appropriate land utilisation and planning policies from the Government, to avoid future conflicts among agriculture, housing, mining and forest conservation, should be one of the nation’s top priorities.

Food insecurity, he said, is a growing concern, especially as the rate of investment in agriculture has not kept pace with residential developments.

He added that Jamaica needs a national strategy to address this issue before it becomes a crisis.

“It is even more urgent now because of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. This situation should be treated as a national emergency because food security is a problem that will only get worse.”

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