Farmers, Register Now!!
Registration
Registration provides information on agricultural stakeholders (farmers, buyers, input suppliers, etc) as well as their activities and outputs in order to boost their capacity and competitiveness in agricultural. The main purpose for registering stakeholders is to establish and operate a database driven system to:
- Process data on stakeholders and their activities;
- Be a repository of technical information;
- Assist stakeholders to buy and sell produce and production inputs;
- Forecast key agricultural variables.
Farm Registration is the process of collecting data to uniquely identify all farmers and provide basic information about their farms and farming practices. Registration targets individuals or groups (including companies) who are cultivating crops or rearing livestock and have the intention to sell. Registration is necessary because farmers, buyers & government need information when making production & business decisions. Registers can inform policy making and programme planning, implementation and operations (e.g. identifying beneficiaries and controlling the distribution of flood relief).
Among the benefits and uses of registration data are:
- All farmers in Jamaica are uniquely identified and officially recognized;
- The agricultural sector’s capacity and prospects for expansion can be determined;
- Farmer and Buyers can get information on the location and estimated volumes of crops and livestock available;
- Inputs suppliers can get information on the potential distribution of farming inputs needed;
- Farming community demographic information such as age, gender, education and land tenure distribution can be obtained (to stimulate and sustain agricultural activity);
- Permits selection of representative sample of farmers for activity tracking;
- Can be combined with regular activity tracking and technical guide to forecast produce supply;
- Used to screen disaster relief claims and to enable a fair distribution of benefits;
- Promote relevance and impact of government’s agricultural support programmes;
- Supports Buyers purchasing strategies, operations and expansion plans;
- Supports input Suppliers stocking policy and plans;
- Crucial enabler of the anti-praedial larceny initiatives and the expansion of the Export Traceability Programme;
- Qualifies farmers to access receipt books required under the amended Agricultural Produce Act (undergoing passage through parliament);
- Provides the Farmer ID needed for receipts to be issued under the amended Agri-Produce Act;
- Provides inspectors (Police, Agri-Wardens) means of verifying produce bearers receipts and purchases;
- Provides capacity information required to support impart protection claims to WTO and other Trade Treaty Organization.
During the registration of a stakeholder the following will occur:
- Farmers’ data and photo taken by RADA staff at specified locations are entered into computers at the parish office;
- This data is later verified by RADA officers through farm visits;
- Photo IDs are produced and made available to farmers after the verification exercise
Registration takes place at all RADA Parish Offices Islandwide and at the EOJ Offices in each parish. Information that will be collected will be about farmers, their farm holdings (lands, crops & livestock) and their agricultural practices. It is desireable that farmers who are registered by a commodity board or are members of a farmers group such as the Coffee Growers Association, The Citrus Growers Association, The Banana Growers Association etc. should be registered even if they have been previously registered by their farmers groups or other organization.