More young women than men venturing into farming
Published:Friday | December 16, 2022 | 1:06 AMBryan Miller/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
Agriculture Minister Pearnel Charles Jr has noted that more young women are stepping up to fill the void being left by older farmers even while their young male counterparts continue to express little interest in the sector.
Charles made the disclosure on Wednesday during an address at the official opening of the new Rural Agricultural Development Authority office in Lucea, Hanover.
The minister also noted that the Government has adopted a deliberate approach to bring young farmers into the industry, which is manifested in its policy to present 20 per cent of its agricultural programmes to youth, women and persons with disabilities.
“ ... I must tell you, for the men who are here now, ... they (women) are zooming past us (men) in farming now, because when we (the Government) gave out the leases, 70 per cent of those leases were to young women. When I look at the information and the request for land and support coming in, more than 50 per cent of them are from women,” he stated.
The agriculture minister went on to issue a challenge to the young men across the country to also seize opportunities in the agricultural sector.
“I believe that agriculture is the way for this country to grow sustainably. I believe that our farmers are among the most important sector of this population, and I believe that they deserve every incentive, [and] every technical support that they get as they continue to feed us and as we continue to ask them to grow smart and eat smart,” he stated.
Speaking with The Gleaner afterwards, Charles described the interest shown by young women in the sector as “a boom and a boost”.
“It’s a good thing. It means that young people and women are seeing Jamaica’s agricultural sector as inclusive. That is a very important part of our goal, where everybody can feel that they can play their part in how to grow smart and eat smart,” he stated.
The minister said that the reasons for the lack of interest towards agriculture from the young men across the island are many and varied, which also includes a cultural mindset.
He added that some of the young men do not believe that farming is going to give them an opportunity to live the way they want to live.
“So we in the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries want to show them that if you do it the right way, if you create the framework, if you do the necessary investments, then we would be able to build out the structure and infrastructure needed to have a sustainable resilient, viable, and inclusive agricultural sector,” Charles stated.
He argued that when young people start to see farming providing more revenue for the primary producers, then there will be an automatic regeneration of the sector.