The Editor, Sir:

Your editorial of May 7 revisits the issue of Government imposing tariff protection as a basis to improve agricultural production. A part of the rationale given for this is "it is not always that we compete on a level playing field. Jamaica cannot afford the farm subsidies offered by some deve-loped countries, including the United States and European Union, to their farmers".

This is a rather uninformed statement. While there are some subsidies in these countries, these are limited to some staple crops and do not extend to crops like vegetables and fruits.

As I compose this letter, the average farm-gate price for carrots ranges from $66 per kilogram in Clarendon and Portland to $132 per kilogram in Hanover. Even though the average price across the island is higher than the lowest price, I will use the low price for this comparison. At today's rate of exchange, $66 per kilogram is about US$740 per ton.

Obvious problem

The quality of our carrots does not even come anywhere near to the quality of carrots from the United States of America. These have a farm-gate price from US$50 per ton in California to US$70 per ton in Georgia and these are not subsidised. But when you look at the yields, the problem becomes (or should become) obvious. The average carrot yield in Jamaica is around five tons per acre while the the yield for those carrots in the USA is 40 tons and up per acre.

We are simply not getting the yield per acre that we should.

"Our soil can grow many more things. It is we who are not making it grow the things it can grow," said Prime Minister Bruce Golding. He is so right, but not because of the usual "fertiliser, water, roads, markets, lack of credit". Yes, these are problems, but they are not the fundamental cause of our low agricultural productivity. Just as any structure (building, bridge, etc) will easily collapse if the foundation is not good, our agriculture has collapsed because its foundation, the soil, has serious problems. What is needed is not "glib calls" for increasing tariffs or putting up trade barriers. What is needed is for us to wake up and recognise what is now inter-nationally referred to as soil health, take it seriously and do something about it.

Developed countries are doing this, with the USA http://soils.usda.gov/sqi/ and Australia http://www.healthysoils.gov.au/ leading the way. But some developing countries, such as those in sub-Sahara Africa, have now recognised its importance. The Alliance for the Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) is very instrumental in this. Anyone can easily go to its website http://www.agra-alliance.org/ and read about it.

I am, etc.,

MARK BROOKS

Malvern PO

St Elizabeth