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Caribbean Islands Land Tenure and Use
Jamaica's total land area covers over 1 million hectares, 25
percent of which were under cultivation in the 1980s. In 1985,
about 145,000 hectares, mostly in the coastal plains, were
determined to be highly fertile, and 350,000 hectares were suitable
for cultivation with various limitations. Some 160,000 hectares of
agricultural land remained idle or underutilized. Twenty-four
percent of total land, some 265,000 hectares, was covered with
natural forest of commercial value. By mid-decade Jamaica had
roughly 155,000 farms,down considerably from the 1978-79
agriculture census total of 179,700. Most farms were small; over 90
percent of all farms had four hectares or less. Farms having more
than 20 hectares contained 43 percent of total cultivated land,
however. According to the agriculture census of 1978-79, the
average farm measured 3 hectares, and the island's largest farms,
those 200 hectares and over, averaged 784 hectares. Sugarcane still
covered over 25 percent of all agricultural land in use, followed
by bananas, root crops, coconuts, citrus, and pimento.
Historically, land tenure in Jamaica has been rather
inequitable. Most concentration of land in the postwar period
resulted from urban migration and the purchases of very large
tracts of land by incoming bauxite companies. The most important
land reform programs in the postwar period were the 1966 Land
Development and Utilization Act (also known as the Idle Land Law)
and Project Land Lease introduced in 1973. The 1966 act allowed the
government to encourage either the productive use, sale, or lease
of some 40,000 hectares identified for the program. Project Land
Lease attempted a more integrated rural development approach,
providing small farmers with land, technical advice, inputs such as
fertilizer, and access to credit. The plan helped more than 23,000
farmers cultivate 18,000 hectares. It is estimated that 14 percent
of idle land was redistributed through Project Land Lease.
Redistribution was still perceived by some as slow, inadequate, and
containing marginally arable land, however; still others saw it as
highly uneconomical and partisan in political terms. In the 1970s,
unrealistically high expectations over land reform, as well as
economic frustration, caused some sporadic land seizures and
squatting, which found little government support. Redistribution of
land in the 1970s emphasized cooperative ownership, a decision that
sharply increased the number of cooperatives on the island and made
members an important political force.
Government policies toward land tenure and land use shifted in
the 1980s in favor of privatization, commercialization, and
modernization of agriculture. Sugar cooperatives were dismantled,
some government holdings were divested, and foreign investment was
sought to update farming methods and help develop new product
lines, or "nontraditional exports." Agro-21, established in 1983 to
spearhead the new agriculture policies, held the ambitious
objective of putting 80,000 hectares of idle land into the hands of
the private sector in four years. The program relied heavily on
international consultants and foreign investment; for example, the
most prominent Agro-21 project, the Spring Plains farm, utilized
Israeli technology. Although success was mixed, the program was
responsible for growth in the production and export of
nontraditional crops, such as winter vegetables, flowers, and
Jamaican ethnic crops.
Traditional farming methods, including slash-and-burn methods,
still dominated on most small farms. The mountainous island
suffered from serious erosion problems, the result of farming on
overly steep hillsides in the interior. Such farming has caused
long-term damage to the country's topsoil, lowering soil
productivity up to one-third according to some estimates. Most
small farmers tended to grow a diversity of crops along with one
main crop. Few peasants were solely subsistence farmers as the
great majority traded a part of their produce and participated in
the exchange economy.
In the 1980s, the use of such agricultural inputs as machinery,
fertilizers, irrigated water, and technical assistance was slowly
growing. Most small farmers still used handtools, especially the
machete instead of more expensive power tools. A large percentage
of the machinery was found on medium-to-large farms, but farms of
up to two hectares used a surprisingly large amount of machinery
for the size of the plot. According to data from the UN Food and
Agriculture Organization, the number of tractors in use on the
island increased by 5.6 percent from 1971 to 1980, averaging eleven
in use per 1,000 hectares of arable land in 1983; despite the
improvement, this ratio was relatively low.
Fertilizers, pesticides, and irrigated water were likewise used
in moderate amounts. Chemical fertilizers were not widely used, and
animal manure and mulch were more common among small farmers. The
use of chemical fertilizers declined by 4.8 percent in the 1970s
after an increase of some 7.2 percent in the 1960s. Declining use
of fertilizers continued in the 1980s. Fertilizer use was most
prevalent for large export crops such as sugarcane, bananas, and
citrus. Pesticides were even less common than fertilizers and were
utilized mostly for sugarcane. Irrigated water covered 12 percent
of arable land in 1983, up from an 8-percent level in 1965.
Most agricultural research occurred within the Ministry of
Agriculture, but various farmer associations, such as the Coffee
Industry Board or the Coconut Industry Board, provided research, as
did the UWI at Mona. The Saturday edition of the Daily
Gleaner provided farmers with valuable information on planting,
harvesting, and new techniques. Agricultural extension workers were
also active in Jamaica, including Ministry of Agriculture
officials, crop associations, and agents of both local and foreign
development organizations. The most important national farmer's
organization was the Jamaican Agricultural Society, to which most
farmers belonged.
Access to credit had increased since the integrated rural
development plans of Project Land Lease in the 1970s, and
augmenting credit to farmers continued to be an important
government policy in the 1980s. The most customary sources of
credit included the People's Cooperative Banks, commercial banks,
Agriculture Credit Board, Agriculture Credit Bank, and Jamaican
Agricultural Development Foundation. High interest rates in Jamaica
throughout the 1980s prevented most small farmers from obtaining
commercial bank loans. Nonetheless, the growth of private
commercialized farming doubled the number of outstanding
agricultural loans from commercial banks between 1980 and 1985.
Multilateral and bilateral development agencies supported a number
of projects in 1987 designed to improve export crops, rural parish
markets, fumigation and certification, and overseas marketing.
Data as of November 1987
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