Dear Editor,
The moot talk of economic success based on our lack of productivity and export challenges seems to be on most people’s discussion agenda. And in these discourses we always give the impression that no other successes exist, albeit that there are many and that they continue to add value to our economy.
Jamaica’s participation in the Foreign Agricultural Resource Management Services (FARMS) programmes in both Canada and the United States of America, aka “farm work”, is one such success that we have discounted, because we may not be fully aware of its importance to rural communities and the economic value to our country.
As our Government’s plate remains full in trying to strategise ways to ensure financial gains for the country generally, and to put idle hands into work specifically, an important part of that strategy remains in the practice of overseas employment by way of these farm work programmes.
Being from the rural parts of Jamaica, I must state that this ‘ritual’ is more normal and valuable than most urban folks seem to know. In fact, it is almost an ingrained custom within most rural parishes and an essential part of their local economy.
Recently, I noted in a newspaper release from the Ministry of Labour spreading the word of the Agricultural Seasonal Workers Programme (ASWP) or farm work programme being responsible for $1.7 billion in remittances in 2015. I was even more pleased to learn that this was a 20 per cent increase, according to the report, and so I made sure my working colleagues of an urban upbringing knew how much we the rural folks are contributing and have contributed to the economy seeing that this programme has been around for some five decades.
A lot of Jamaicans, including my father and his late father, lined up in the hope of benefiting from this job programme and, in our case, both were thankfully successful and today I am a professional as a result of the benefits they derived.
What would I and my many friends from the rural parts of our economy have done without this programme?
On behalf of all Jamaicans who have benefited from these programmes, I would like to recognise Minister Fenton Ferguson and our Government for seeing to its continuation and, more importantly, would like to thank our mothers for the emotional sacrifices they make annually when their men folk are away on “farm work” for a prolonged period.
Jerome Hanson
jjhanson15@outlook.com
The moot talk of economic success based on our lack of productivity and export challenges seems to be on most people’s discussion agenda. And in these discourses we always give the impression that no other successes exist, albeit that there are many and that they continue to add value to our economy.
Jamaica’s participation in the Foreign Agricultural Resource Management Services (FARMS) programmes in both Canada and the United States of America, aka “farm work”, is one such success that we have discounted, because we may not be fully aware of its importance to rural communities and the economic value to our country.
As our Government’s plate remains full in trying to strategise ways to ensure financial gains for the country generally, and to put idle hands into work specifically, an important part of that strategy remains in the practice of overseas employment by way of these farm work programmes.
Being from the rural parts of Jamaica, I must state that this ‘ritual’ is more normal and valuable than most urban folks seem to know. In fact, it is almost an ingrained custom within most rural parishes and an essential part of their local economy.
Recently, I noted in a newspaper release from the Ministry of Labour spreading the word of the Agricultural Seasonal Workers Programme (ASWP) or farm work programme being responsible for $1.7 billion in remittances in 2015. I was even more pleased to learn that this was a 20 per cent increase, according to the report, and so I made sure my working colleagues of an urban upbringing knew how much we the rural folks are contributing and have contributed to the economy seeing that this programme has been around for some five decades.
A lot of Jamaicans, including my father and his late father, lined up in the hope of benefiting from this job programme and, in our case, both were thankfully successful and today I am a professional as a result of the benefits they derived.
What would I and my many friends from the rural parts of our economy have done without this programme?
On behalf of all Jamaicans who have benefited from these programmes, I would like to recognise Minister Fenton Ferguson and our Government for seeing to its continuation and, more importantly, would like to thank our mothers for the emotional sacrifices they make annually when their men folk are away on “farm work” for a prolonged period.
Jerome Hanson
jjhanson15@outlook.com