Labour Minister Karl Samuda (left) making his presentation during a yesterday’s productivity forum at the Spanish Court Hotel in New Kingston as Dr Marcia Rowe Amonde, senior director, HEART/NSTA Trust, looks on.
A senior research analyst at the Jamaica Productivity Centre (JPC) is pitching agriculture and agro-processing as the best option to move the country’s economy into a position of sustained growth.
Wendel Ivey told panellists at yesterday’s Jamaica Productivity Forum at the Spanish Court Hotel in New Kingston that research shows that agro-processing on its own can bring about increased production through automation.
He said in addition that while the agriculture sector employs roughly one-fifth of labour in Jamaica, the productivity was so low that any marginal increase of output per worker could boost the sector and influence the economy.