December 18 (JIS): Plans are under way to expand the country’s animal tagging programme to include small ruminants. Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Senator the Hon. Kamina Johnson Smith, provided an update on the National Animal Identification and Traceability System while piloting the Agricultural Produce (Amendment) Act, 2023 in the Senate, recently. As a means of combatting praedial larceny, the Government implemented measures to monitor activities in Jamaica’s livestock industry through the National Animal Identification and Traceability System (NAITS). The NAITS is an identification and registration system for the Jamaican livestock population, such as cattle, which incorporates information on their identify, ownership, geographical location and movement activity. “The National Animal Identification and Traceability System, it does continue. All registered farmers are required to have their cows tagged, so it is implemented in terms of bovine, but the intention now and the efforts under way are to expand the programme to small ruminants – goats and the pigs – because they were not part of the initial programme,” Senator Johnson Smith said. She pointed out that the programme started with cows, as they were the biggest source of theft. The Agricultural Produce (Amendment) Act, which will facilitate the imposition of harsher penalties for praedial larceny, was passed in the Senate on Friday (December 15), with eight amendments. The maximum fine for breaches under the law will now move from $250,000 or three months in prison, to $3 million or three years in prison. In piloting the legislation, Senator Johnson Smith said the amendments seek to expand the initiatives of the Government to stamp out the scourge of praedial larceny.

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