Some unsolicited and possibly meretricious advice for our dear Min of Agriculture who works so hard and is so sincere but may not see the bigger picture enough @floydgreenja @trevorforrest @lizzielevy

JA as we know came into being after 1655 essentially as a plantation business proposition for the London merchants close to Cromwell. 1838 emancipation didn't change this. It made it worse economically as the British dropped the Caribbean pivoting to Asia (Hong Kong 1841)

1938 didn't change this either. Frome/Monymusk were set up by Tate & Lyle with cheap second-hand equipment bought at Depression fire sales in Louisiana

By 1969 T&L decided they wouldn't accept the low productivity any more and handed it all over to a perplexed Shearer. The 70s didn't solve this either. Neither did the boatload of Chinese investment post-2012

THE problem is very low productivity. The root of this problem is the low level of rural education. Modern methods of farming simply don't stick as Seaga sadly discovered during Agro21

So, the key is to the whole puzzle is how to raise the level off rural ed. This is a matter of the low quality of rural HIGH SCHOOLS. It has NOTHING to do with Early Childhood Education. Zero! Zilch! That's just the reality

Given the sad state of the MOEYI/JTA industrial complex, you can expect little understanding let alone help from that quarter. You are on your own my bro on the KEY task you face

So, what to do? You have to constitute your own little rural education mini-ministry inside your ministry. Forget the Cabinet Secty civil service crap about which subjects are assigned where. Just do it! They can only fume. In practice they can't do one damn thing

I suggest you get hold of Derrick D who is a leader in education and already in your ministry. He is politically sympathetic and more importantly has sense and experience. Task him with putting together a group whose sole task is the improvement of high school educational quality

For Agriculture (and JA as a whole) to develop we have to change our location form downstream to upstream in the global supply chain. No amount of yam/mango exports to Maryland or New York can change that. Reality. It's a qualitative repositioning which is required

So far, improvements in agriculture have largely benefitted a minority. But what development really means is a transformation in the quality of the economic activity of the majority whether they are self-employed or work for others. This can't happen with existing ed levels

At it's root, this is no different from the issue of low urban productivity. Poor quality urban high schools again. The proposed 5 STEM high schools point in right direction but are much too few. Also, narrowly conceived as 'STEM'. We need root & branch--the entire tree!

So, my 5 cents. People like @trevorforrest clearly understand but he doesn't have the power. But you do. So over to you!