Minister of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries, Hon. Audley Shaw, has congratulated the winners in this year’s Praedial Larceny Prevention Essay and Poster Competition, even as he challenged young people to shun the practice of illegally benefitting from the effort and hard work of others.
Addressing the awards ceremony of the competition held Tuesday, August 28 at the Hope Gardens offices of his Ministry, Minister Shaw welcomed the initiative, which is used to sensitise young people across the island about the devastating impact of farm theft on the country’s public health, rural communities and the economy.
The Minister said there was a propensity in the society to tolerate improper behaviour and urged the young people to value hard work as a means to achieving what they need.
The agriculture minister urged Jamaicans to be the farmers’ keeper by refusing to do business with those who obtain agricultural produce by illicit means.
“We know them; we know the individuals who always have something to sell but are not engaged in any legal production of these things. Let us become a farmer’s keeper and shun these individuals, ʺ Mr Shaw declared.
Citing the words of one of the essay competitors, “once in your life, you need a doctor, a lawyer, a policeman and a preacher but every day, three times a day, you need a farmer”, Minister Shaw told the audience that we cannot continue to frustrate our farmers through farm theft, but that instead, we must help our farmers because we depend on them for our three daily meals.
Minister Shaw noted that the competition, organised by the Praedial Larceny Prevention Coordination Unit of the Ministry of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries, focused on preventative measures that can be implemented by farmers to curtail theft of their agricultural produce with primary students designing posters, while high school students wrote essays on the topic.
The winners of the poster competition were 3rd place – Angelique Forrest, 2nd place – Alaine Preston of Ocho Rios Primary and 1st place - Sehu Ra of Belmont Park Primary School.
In the secondary school essay competition Akelia Salmon of Belair High; – Camara Hamilton of Herbert Morrison Technical High and Sheneika Davidson of Seaforth High School copped the first, second and third place prizes, respectively.
The Praedial Larceny Prevention Essay and Poster Competition was sponsored by Crime Stop Jamaica, Hi-Pro Ace Supercentre, Hardware & Lumber Limited , Jamaica Dairy Development Board , Jamaica Small Ruminants Association, JP Tropical Foods Limited and Seprod Limited.
