Bammy block

WESTERN BUREAU:

St James farmer Nadesha Campbell, who has faced several hurdles while seeking to launch her own coconut cassava bread, thought she had a breakthrough earlier this year after showing her product to businessman Michael Lee-Chin, but now says her dream is continuing to be stonewalled.

Campbell, 45, whose efforts to secure land to build a bammy processing factory were previously reported in The Sunday Gleaner, received a $125,000 donation from Lee-Chin through the NCB Foundation’s 2024 Grant a Wish programme in February this year. The donation was meant to give her a start in making her ambitious project a reality.

However, speaking recently with The Gleaner, Campbell said she continues to be hindered in her efforts to secure land in Montpelier, St James to start her bammy factory. She provided copies of up-to-date correspondences with the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining and with the National Land Agency’s (NLA) senior lands officer, Andrecia Robertson, to support her claims.

“When I went to the NLA’s North Street office, one of the administrators there said Ms Robertson wrote a report saying that the land is not up for divestment. Since I had gotten a letter of no objection [indicating that the property should be available], they need to tell me why the property is not up for divestment,” said Campbell.

“The parcel of land is under the NLA, but it is Ministry of Agriculture land, and the chief technical director and the permanent secretary in the ministry would have had information about the occupancy or availability of those properties that are under the Ministry of Agriculture,” Campbell argued. “The chief technical director came to visit the site, looked at it, went back to write a report, and then handed me a letter of no objection ... .”

Campbell’s fight to secure the Montpelier property goes as far back as December 2023, when she identified the plot of land near the Montpelier Agricultural Showground as the site at which she hoped to establish her factory. Despite having been told by the agriculture ministry at that time that it had no issue with her proposed development, she was later told by the NLA, in February 2024, that it could not grant her access to the location.

The Gleaner was shown a copy of a letter from the NLA to Campbell, dated May 31, 2024, stating that the property was not up for divestment. Additionally, Campbell provided copies of correspondence dated March 19, 2025, which indicated that no lands were available to build her factory.

In previous correspondence on the issue in 2024, the NLA’s marketing and public relations manager, Nicole Hayles, had told The Gleaner that the Jamaica Agricultural Society (JAS) had owned the disputed property for over 40 years. At that time, she noted that the rejection of Campbell’s application for the identified land is a standard response when properties are unavailable for divestment.

Glendon Harris, president of the JAS’ St James branch, had previously asserted that the organisation has a 99-year lease on the property, a claim that Campbell is contesting.

Procuring Crown land

When The Gleaner made contact with Robertson in relation to Campbell’s latest claims, she redirected all queries to Hayles.

In turn, when contacted, Hayles pointed to a press release from the NLA dated April 4, 2025, which outlined the agency’s guidelines for procuring Crown land, or government land, as designated in the Policy Framework and Procedures Manual for the Divestment of Government-owned Lands 2015.

“In contemporary Jamaica, what is often referred to as ‘Crown lands’ is actually land owned and managed by the Jamaican government. This land is used for various public purposes, including national parks, government buildings, infrastructure, and public services. Crown lands are vested in the commissioner of lands, and the NLA manages these assets,” said Hayles.

“Please note that the process involves dialogue with key stakeholders, who may have beneficial interest in the property themselves. This property may be reserved for future public use, such as the construction of a school, police station, hospital, etc,” Hayles added. “Other stakeholders would be asked to comment on the proposal, based on their statutory authority, such as the municipal corporations, the National Environment and Planning Agency, etc, while some will be asked based on the proximity of the proposal to their operations, such as a police station, school, etc. Where lands are vacant and can be made available for divestment, they are advertised in accordance with the government of Jamaica’s Land Divestment Policy, unless the applicant meets the criteria to be classified as a special case applicant, as per the said policy.”

The NLA did not respond specifically to Campbell’s most recent claims, nor did it provide any copies of documentation regarding the Montpelier property, despite a Gleaner request for same.

The Gleaner attempted to contact Maureen Denton, chief of staff at the NCB Financial Group, in accordance with instructions to redirect questions that were initially sent to Lee-Chin regarding Campbell’s case. However, efforts to contact Denton were unsuccessful.

christopher.thomas@gleanerjm.com