|
Caribbean Islands Agriculture
The decline in agriculture's share of both GDP and the labor
force continued in the 1980s. From 1980 to 1985, agriculture as a
share of GDP dropped from 8.3 percent to 5.7 percent. Likewise, the
percentage of the labor force in agriculture decreased from over 30
percent in the 1970s to 24 percent by 1985. Agriculture's inability
to keep pace with other sectors of the economy or population growth
forced an increase in food imports. As a result of these trends,
Jamaica's total food import bill increased elevenfold from 1960 to
1980. These patterns were likely to persist because fewer younger
people were entering farming. For example, in 1985 an estimated 50
percent of the agricultural labor force was over fifty years of age
and 30 percent over sixty years. In the 1980s, government policies
sought to revive declining production of traditional export crops
and to introduce and promote nontraditional export crops through
the commercialization and modernization of the sector.
Data as of November 1987
|
