The potential of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine to impact food security is but a sharp reminder that Barbados needs to fast-track its plans to shore up the food and nutritional security of the island.
This point was driven home yesterday by Minister of Agriculture Indar Weir, who was fielding questions from his parliamentary colleagues from the Well of Parliament, when the Estimates Debate continued.
Weir said that the Ministry was working with NGOs such as the Cancer Society and the Diabetes Association to embark on a programme of changing the eating habits of Barbadians, curtailing the reliance on processed food. He also disclosed that his ministry was working on establishing a seed bank, as well as on production of hatching eggs locally.
“We do see people doing foolish things in this current day and age. If ever there was a time for us to focus on food security, this is the time. We now need to forge ahead with the establishment of a seed bank as well as establish ways for us to produce our own hatching eggs. If there is a supply chain disruption, we need to ensure that we can still continue on this work that we are doing in conjunction with Guyana. Once we can get the production of healthy food up, once we can get the consistency of supply, then we can break the back of what we consider to be unhealthy diets and get people to transition to more nutritious diets,” Weir said. (CLM)
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