Knockalva chairman wants Gov’t to step up use of technology in farming
Published:Saturday | August 9, 2025 | 12:08 AMChristopher Thomas/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
Anthony Lawrence, the chairman of the Knockalva Polytechnic College, in Hanover, is calling for the Government of Jamaica to implement policies that will allow the country’s farmers to integrate modern technology into their farming practices to improve productivity.
Lawrence outlined his view during a press conference held yesterday at the Rural Agricultural Development Authority’s (RADA) Catherine Hall office in Montego Bay, St James.
The press conference was called to announce plans for Knockalva College’s upcoming 85th anniversary celebration, which will be held on October 24 and 25.
“I have often said that what the Government has invested in Knockalva to teach agriculture is insufficient, in the sense that we are not keeping pace with technology. Gone are the days of the machete and hoe, and gone are the days when people thought that if you studied agriculture, you were not too smart in the classroom, and that is not true,” said Lawrence.
“Jamaica is now caught in a quandary where our agriculture is not fully developed, where we are not fully developed in industrialisation, and here we are in the information age with Industry 4.0. We have to be very deliberate about how we prepare our students, our young people, to face the world and be competitive globally,” Lawrence continued. “This transformation is attainable only through scientific support, utilising education as the vehicle. We need to produce more veterinarians, biochemists, and plant pathologists.”
Growing population
Citing a World Bank report that suggests the global population will number approximately 10 billion by 2050, Lawrence said it was important for Jamaica’s farmers to incorporate scientific methods into their farming practices in order to adequately feed the nation.
“Right now, the world population is about seven billion, so you are going to almost double that by the time you get to 2050. The critical question here is, how will agriculture continue to feed the world without causing irreparable strain on the available resources? How will farmers tackle this complex process of agro-ecology, and how do we encourage new agricultural policies? This is completely nonpartisan, because this is about national pride,” said Lawrence.
“There are still a lot of farmers who are not at the place where they understand technology, and this is where we depend on students coming out of places like Knockalva, CASE (College of Agriculture, Science and Education) and the different universities to be able to break down that knowledge and to apply it. We think that with the various forms of modern technology and with enhanced knowledge, we will innovate and improve agricultural practices, leading to higher productivity and sustainability,” Lawrence continued.
In February this year, Agriculture Minister Floyd Green announced that the Government will spend $6 billion over the next six years on research to improve the varieties and yields of several different crops, and that modern technology is being used to address issues such as praedial larceny and labour shortage.
Prior to that, in 2022, Green called for farmers and students seeking to enter the agricultural sector to find ways of using modern technology to make farming productive on a national and global scale.