ABSTRACT
The commitment to maximize cane throughput, imbedded into the policy from the beginning, had significant implications. When the People's National Party (PNP) entered office in 1972 the three largest cane farming properties in Jamaica, totaling about 48,000 acres in cane, had already reverted to state ownership. In keeping with thie tradition it is not surprising that the post-1972 PNP government decided that the fundamental principle guiding its policy toward the distribution of the newly acquired cane lands was that they should be developed, where feasible, ascooperatives , with workers and small farmers as the beneficiaries. The long period of procrastination had major consequences for the subsequent development of the policy. A second policy principle guiding the government's approach to the distribution of the Frome, Monymusk and Bernard Lodge lands, as well as its entire agrarian reform program, was that potential beneficiaries be given access to land via leasehold, and not freehold, tenures.
