JAMAICA | The Technology Myth: Why Jamaica's Farms Are Really Failing

Kingston, Jamaica, July 5, 2025 - While agricultural officials cry out for modern technology to save Jamaica's declining food production, farmers across the island struggle with basic challenges that have persisted for decades: water shortages, labour unavailability, and poor infrastructure.

The irony runs deep—Jamaica has had the technological foundation for agricultural success for over a century, yet the sector continues its downward spiral.

Agriculture's value-added contribution to GDP declined to $1.1 billion in 2023, while the country imports $1.4 billion worth of food annually, with 45% coming from the United States. The numbers tell a stark story: Jamaica is becoming increasingly dependent on foreign food while its own farms lie fallow.

Technology Isn't the Real Problem

The call for agricultural technology rings hollow when Jamaica's history reveals a different truth. Railway service arrived in 1844 to transport crops from field to market. The postal service began operations in 1671, followed by the Gleaner Company in 1834—both critical to agricultural communication and development. 

Electricity generation started in 1892, complemented by wharves and airports that created a robust logistics network.

The Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA) recently launched its mobile app and RADA Connect initiative, bringing extension services directly to farmers through smartphones. Yet this represents more of the same approach: throwing technology at problems that require fundamental management reform.

The College of Agriculture Science and Education (CASE), successor to institutions dating back to 1910, boasts 115 years of agricultural research and technology development. During this time, countless crop varieties and livestock breeds have been developed to world acclaim. 

RADA now operates drones for crop monitoring and has registered over 200,000 farmers, proving the technology exists and is being deployed.

The Real Culprits

Jamaica's agricultural decline stems from "diminishing availability of arable land and stagnant agricultural innovation to the marginalization of small-scale farming and recurrent climatic shocks". Prime agricultural land has been converted to housing estates, plazas, and urban developments, permanently removing it from food production. This land conversion has made the food basket heavily weighted toward imports, creating currency instability and widening food insecurity.

Perhaps most glaringly, Jamaica suffers from a labour paradox that exposes the depths of agricultural mismanagement. The Overseas Employment Programme placed 14,350 skilled Jamaican farm workers in Canada and the United States in 2024, while local farmers struggled desperately with labour shortages. 

Winston Simpson, CEO of RADA, admits that "labour is a serious issue. You cannot get anyone to work," noting that some potato farmers in St Catherine have reduced output by as much as two-thirds due to manpower shortages.

This represents a devastating brain drain—or rather, a "brawn drain"—where Jamaica exports its most capable agricultural workers while its own farms wither from labour unavailability. Jamaica has been facilitating overseas farm work since 1953, originally responding to demand for manpower in the Canadian agricultural sector. 

The irony cuts deep: Jamaican workers are considered valuable enough for North American employers to pay premium wages, provide housing, transportation, and benefits, yet local farmers cannot attract or retain this same talent pool.

The banana industry, once a cornerstone of Jamaican agriculture, illustrates the broader decline. Exports fell from 88,917 tonnes in 1996 to just 41,000 tonnes in 2000—a collapse that had little to do with technological gaps and everything to do with poor policy and management decisions.

Climate change has intensified these challenges, with farmers in Mount Airy reporting that "the weather here's a lot drier for longer these days". But even here, solutions exist: UN-backed water harvesting systems and drip irrigation have proven effective in helping farmers adapt.

Missed Opportunities

Jamaica's agricultural administrators have confused the use of agrochemicals with technological innovation, missing simpler solutions that could transform productivity. Field cables used in banana farming during the 1990s to transport fruit with less labour could be applied to coffee, yams, pineapples, and melons to reduce both labour costs and post-harvest losses.

Fruit trees planted randomly across the landscape could be reorganized into efficient orchards. Coconuts, breadfruit, and ackee trees need pruning to accommodate equipment-aided harvesting instead of relying on dangerous, labour-intensive traditional methods.

Municipal markets could serve as technology transfer hubs, offering packaging, weighing, and labeling services while facilitating both domestic and export marketing. These aren't revolutionary concepts—they're basic improvements that have been available for decades.

The Path Forward

Agriculture Minister Floyd Green has promised tractors for every agro-park and announced new RADA initiatives, but these measures address symptoms rather than causes. With Jamaica's ratio of one extension officer to 1,000 farmers—far worse than the global average of 250-300—technology alone cannot bridge the service gap.

The government must address fundamental issues: securing arable land from development, improving irrigation infrastructure, providing affordable equipment rental services, and implementing research findings that have been gathering dust for years. Most critically, Jamaica must examine why it exports skilled agricultural labour while simultaneously crying for farm workers. This labour drain mirrors the familiar brain drain that has plagued Jamaica for decades, except now it's happening in the very sector the country desperately needs to revitalize.

Food sovereignty will remain elusive as long as factors of production continue to elude farmers. While the World Bank reports that "over 5,300 rural farmers and small agri-business owners received training in climate-resilient agricultural practices", training without access to land, water, and equipment remains largely meaningless.

Jamaica's agricultural quagmire isn't a technology problem—it's a management and priority problem that no amount of apps, drones, or digital platforms can solve without addressing the fundamental failures in policy and resource allocation that have plagued the sector for decades.

The tools for agricultural success have been in Jamaica's hands for over a century. What's missing is the wisdom to use them.

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Lenworth Fulton is an agriculturalist; A former head of the 4-H Clubs of Jamaica; A former Head of RADA and a former head of the Jamaica Agricultural Society. He can be contacted at عنوان البريد الإلكتروني هذا محمي من روبوتات السبام. يجب عليك تفعيل الجافاسكربت لرؤيته.