After reading Claude Clarke's column in The Sunday Gleaner, your editorial of November 11 was very much needed. The role that agriculture plays in an economy is not appreciated by many. Contrary to many popular beliefs, agriculture is a very big driving force in developing countries and it performs a critical role in turning developing countries into developed countries.
According to From Columbus to Conagra: The Globalisation of Agriculture and Food (published 1995), "In developing nations, agriculture has been both the main traditional pursuit and key to growth in their economy. Generally speaking, economic growth has gone hand in hand with agricultural progress while stagnation in agriculture is a first cause explanation for poor economic performance."
Perhaps Clarke might pay close attention to the words said by Governor Adlai Stevenson of Illinois, Democratic presidential candidate 1952, guest speaker at the opening of the Jamaica Manufacturers' Association Exhi-bition at the Victoria Market, September, 1955.
"But there is much, much more to do. There are swamps to drain, hills to cultivate, roads to build, houses to construct, hospitals to improve, slums to clear away. And if you are to keep ahead of your rapidly rising population, the pace of industrial and agricultural advance must be accelerated until the happy day when education and well-being brings into balance the alarming pressure of population on your national income.
"You will note that I said industrial and agricultural development, because they are interdependent. Industrial development alone cannot make a country richer, yet a sustained rise in income is unlikely without substantial industrialisation.
"The point is that a rise in average income, which is probably your best hope of bringing the frightening flood of population into control, is best brought about by increasing production all along the line in agriculture and industry. Improvement in agricultural production promotes industrialisation and industrial development in turn takes up the manpower released by improved farming methods."
Progressive agriculture
Without a progressive, vibrant and functioning agriculture Jamaica will continue its downward spiral. But for this type of agriculture to exist, we have to go to the foundation of any agriculture, and that is the soil, or rather the health of the soil itself.
Right now, diverse regions in the world are recognising this important part of life. The past secretary general of the United Nations, Kofi A. Annan, and now chairman of the Alliance for the Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), said at the launch of AGRA at Cape Town in June 2007, "No country or region of significant size has been able to lift itself out of poverty without raising productivity in its agricultural sector. Our fight against poverty is directly linked to the health of the earth itself."
Without soil health, there will be no agriculture, no economy, and no social stability in Jamaica.
I am, etc.,
MARK BROOKS
Malvern
St Elizabeth