WESTERN BUREAU:
Minister of Agriculture Minister Karl Samuda is blaming the lack of infrastructural development for both rural-urban drift and the migration of trained young people, who feel they have no other option but to move away in search of opportunities for advancement.
According to Samuda, there are two types of infrastructural development, hard and soft. He noted that the infrastructural issues coupled with the exigencies of climate change were driving away young people from farming.
“At the root of the problem is the need for infrastructural development in rural Jamaica, and by infrastructural development, I mean both hard infrastructure and soft infrastructure,” said Samuda. “Hard infrastructural development has to do with roads, water and electricity, while soft infrastructural development has to do with technology.”
Samuda, who was speaking at Thursday’s World Food Day National Ceremony and Exhibition at the Knockalva Agricultural School in Ramble, Hanover, says both hard
and soft infrastructural developments are necessary to create economic growth and development.
World Food Day is observed annually on October 16 in over 150 countries, but with October 16 being observed as National Heroes Day in Jamaica, the Ministry of Agriculture decided to start its observation on October 13. The ministry, in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), is piloting the observation under the theme: migration, food security and rural development.
Leave A Comment