Agriculture is continually being knocked. Some say it’s dead. We agriculturalists have for years preached the importance of producing as much of our food as possible, but it has mostly fallen on deaf ears. We hear disturbing statements like “Farming?! You are joking, right? A focus on onions and cabbages seems odd to me. You have a great position, an educated people, good connectivity, and you need to focus on opportunities not onions, creativity, not cabbages; banking, not bananas; and the Internet, not the past. Surely.”
But more recently, some people seem to have woken up, and “food security” has suddenly become a buzz phrase. No less a person than our Chief Justice is now supporting the cause, congratulating Coast Guard members for growing some of their food. Then there is the well known Carl Moore, who is developing his home garden. There is even a small business producing “instant tiered gardens” complete with soil mix and seedlings, especially well suited to urban areas with limited space.
Despite the challenges, there are positive things happening in agriculture every day. Recent initiatives make me even more hopeful for the advancement of the sector. Of course, there can’t be significant advancement without investment, but farmers must be confident that Government’s policies will support this investment.
Farmers are continually looking to diversify. One such farmer is Richard Armstrong, who is expanding his business into agro-processing. He will be offering sweet potato fries to hopefully replace the imported product, which is popular with restaurants and the general public.
More recently THE NATION newspaper reported that Sir Charles Williams was embarking on an export project involving greenhouse vegetable production, and it’s rumoured that there’s another such project aiming to export produce to a large British supermarket chain during the winter months.
We recently learned that two Americans, one with Barbadian connections, will be setting up a US$18 million fish farm in St Philip. The project, supported by Israeli expertise, expects to produce 1 200 tonnes of barramundi annually.
While I congratulate Sir Kyffin Simpson on taking the plunge and investing in a large farm in Guyana, I would’ve been happier to see him investing in local agriculture – even if he had to import the labour from Guyana!
Admittedly, it takes courage to invest in Barbados where there seem to be so many hurdles. As an entrepreneur noted recently, there are so many conditions to be met, that one tends to lose heart.
I listened to Minister Ronald Jones telling some young farmers recently that “the Caribbean is in the midst of plenty, yet surrounded by scarcity”, and that it would take a “revolution of the mind” to change that position, and that all researchers, scientists and agronomists needed to come forward and enthuse young people about the “bounty which exists in our midst that we need to plant, harvest and make valuable use of”.
He noted that the negative perception of agriculture and its workers, as well as bureaucrats and politicians not understanding agriculture, had resulted in the crippling of some people’s minds and their actions, and had contributed to the region not seeing “that grounds well of production”. I don’t often agree with Minister Jones, but this speech warmed my heart and for a moment I thought he had switched portfolios.
At last the ailing sugar industry has received a part of the $9 million promised ages ago. Although it’s too late to impact next year’s crop, let’s hope it will improve the 2015 crop. The Agronomy Research and Variety Testing Unit must be congratulated for the work done to enhance viability of the industry which is so inextricably linked to food crop production.
So, finally there seems to be “light at the end of the tunnel”. However, Government, in its wisdom, having allowed the sugar industry to reach such a low state, seems hell-bent on building a $400 million factory. A much simpler and cheaper alternative has been proposed but seems to have been ignored. As has been said, “Politicians are people who, when they see light at the end of the tunnel, go out and buy some more tunnel.” (John Quinton, American actor/writer).
Time will tell whether their decision was wise.
• Dr Frances Chandler is a former Independent senator.
