Bharrat Jagdeo (third right), president of Guyana and chairman of CARICOM, presents the Percival Broderick Sr trophy to St Elizabeth representatives Roy Morrison (right), agriculture manager, and Carr Myers, extension officer, at the Denbigh Agricultural and Industrial Show yesterday. Also in photo are (from left) Glendon Harris, president of the Jamaica Agricultural Society; Bruce Golding, prime minister; and Christopher Tufton, minister of agriculture and fisheries. - Norman Grindley/Chief Photographer
Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Chairman Bharrat Jagdeo has urged Jamaican leaders to view agriculture as a crucial industry to national prosperity.
Jagdeo, the Guyanese president, said the farming sector should not be neglected and relegated to the back burner once the Jamaican economy stabilised after a global economic meltdown which has caused massive job cuts and company closures throughout the Caribbean.
"Beyond this crisis, we need to see agriculture as a very important sector. Definitely, in the past, this wasn't so," said Jagdeo during an address at the Denbigh Agricultural and Industrial Show in Clarendon yesterday.
The Guyanese president, who is on a five-day working trip to Jamaica which began last Friday, also emphasised the need to strengthen external trade policy at the CARICOM level and bolster sources of long-term financing to support farmers.