Since September 10, 2008, the Ministry of Agriculture, through RADA has partnered with the Electoral Office of Jamaica (EOJ) to re-launch the Farmer Registration programme. This partnership means that a farmer can now be registered at any RADA or EOJ office islandwide.
The registration process involves; interviewing the farmer to record pertinent personal, profile, property and enterprise (crop/livestock) data on a Farmer registration form. Upon completion the form is dated and signed by both farmer and interviewer. This data is then entered into the Agricultural Business Information System (ABIS), database, which is an online web based system.
This information is now made available to a RADA extension officer responsible for that area in which the farmer’s property is located. The Extension Officer will then schedule a field visit with the farmer to verify the information provided. Each verified farmer will be provided with a Farmer Registration Identification card issued through the Parish Office in which he/she is located.

Who is a FARMER?
Based on the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN),
The definition of a farmer states:–

Holder or Farmer
The words holder, farmer, farm operator are used interchangeably and they all mean the same thing. This is the person who exercises management control over the agricultural holding operation and takes major decisions regarding the use of resources.  The holder may be a single individual, a government company or agency or a private company. The farmer is financially responsible for the business, pays the bills, bears all the risks, and makes the profits directly resulting from the farming operations. The holder may own the land, he may be a tenant or he may occupy the land without either owning or paying to the owner for his occupancy (squatter) etc.

Note that “the holder may not be doing the actual manual work on the farm. Generally in our society we refer to the small operator who works his own small piece of land and rears his few animals as the farmer and the operator of the large farms who may only direct the labour or delegate the day to day operations of the farm to an overseer or manager, we refer to as the holder. They are both the same as they exercise management control over the operation”.

Holders may be operating farms as individual holders or as joint holders. An individual holder is a person making the major decisions regarding the use of resources and exercising management control over the farm operations on his/her own. A joint holder is a person making the decisions in conjunction with another person. This other person may be from within the same household or from a different household. Even in the case of a husband and wife operating a farm together, if only one of them makes the major decisions, he or she is defined as the holder and should be classified as an individual holder. If both are involved in major decision-making, each should be considered a joint holder.

When two or more persons jointly operating the farming enterprise are members of the same household, only one of them, generally the head (if he or she is one) or the more senior person is regarded as the holder for that holding. If however, one of the two (in the same household) also independently operates another piece of land, such a member is considered the holder of this separate piece which should be counted as a separate farming enterprise.

Members of the same family operating their own separate plots whether on one large piece of family land or not are separate holders of those farms.

What is a Holding or Farm?
The holding or farm is all the land being utilized in full or in part for agricultural purposes which is located in a single parish.  The holding or farm may consist of one parcel of land or may be in several parcels.  Where it comprises several parcels all parcels must be located within the same parish to be considered a single farm. Where parcels are located in several parishes, there will be as many farms as parishes. Where a holding straddles (i.e. on the border of) two parishes, the parish where the house/residence or the headquarters is located is to be regarded as the parish of location.
A farm may comprise land in crops or it may be animals only. Where there are animals only, and no land dedicated to their rearing these are referred to as landless farms.
In term of size, a holding or farm is any agricultural enterprise with a minimum of at least one of the following:

(i)     one square chain of cultivation (crops including flowers whether in a
        greenhouse/shade house or not.  Note that there is no size limit to the 
        greenhouse/shade house); or
(ii)    twelve bearing economic trees e.g. citrus, mangoes, breadfruit etc.; or
(iii)   two head of cattle; or
(iv)   two pigs or five goats or five sheep; or
(v)    fifty poultry (any combination) including ducks, turkeys etc.; or
(vi)   six beehives; or
(vii)  one fish (including ornamental) or shrimp pond of any size.
Economic units engaged solely in the following economic activities are not considered agricultural holdings and accordingly were not included in the census:
1.    hunting, horse breeding
2.    forestry and logging
3.    marine fishing