Agriculture Minister Dr Christopher Tufton has urged the Jamaica Agricultural Society (JAS) to return to its core function of addressing issues that promote the welfare of the farming community.

He made the charge at the organisation's 114th annual general meeting at the Denbigh Showground in Clarendon.

He said if the organisation intended to be effective, it had to focus on what it been mandated to do.

"Perhaps the JAS was forced, by virtue of the fact that the Government, over time, paid to provide certain core functions for the farmers of the country, like marketing, and so on," Tufton told farmers.

He said the JAS must ensure it remained, at all times, in an objective position so that it could cater to all its members. He pointed out that at different times, the organisation had been seen as favouring one political party over another.