We are sure the humorous story which unfolded in the media last week should prove to be insightful not only to the farmer et al involved but to the supporting agencies like the Barbados Agricultural Society and the Ministry of Agriculture. In case you missed it, we have this farmer who for the second consecutive year called in to the popular call-in show Down To Brasstacks, and was highly critical of government for not creating a system where farmers can efficiently distribute their ‘produce’. He cited his own example where he had a significant supply of onions which were about to spoil because as he read it, there was no market and or there was a glut. He attributed the mess, if we understood him correctly, squarely to government reneging on their leadership role in the agriculture industry.
Here is the humourous part 🙂
A couple of days later the St. Lucy farmer was reported in the press to be pleased that the over-supply or lack of demand for his onions, which he had complained about only 48 hours earlier had miraculously been snapped up by eager consumers (wholesalers and retailers alike). The farmer was pleased that he was able to offload his crop of onions but here is what he was reported to have said when his perceived problem was first reported:
St Lucy farmer Arthur Smith was forced to give away 10 000 pounds of tomatoes last year when he couldn’t get them sold. This year he has a glut of onions on his hands and is once again blaming the importation – this time of onions duty-free – for his failure to get his onions sold. Smith told the DAILY NATION yesterday he was not pleased about this ongoing situation which was making him look like a fool. He charged that if Government was serious about agriculture it would ensure that there was a market for farmers to get their produce sold – Source: Nation
Some questions which we have for the farmer: do you have a problem or not? If you are in business is it not your responsibility to ensure you can market your product? If you are having challenges don’t you have several agencies which have been established to provide assistance? – We refer to agencies like the Barbados Agricultural Society (BAS), Small Business Association (SBA), and should we mention the several government agencies embedded within the Ministry of Agriculture? Ultimately the farmer is a businessman who must be able to make the right decisions to ensure that his business can sustain profitability. Having admitted that we are aware that some business sectors because of several factors outside of their control need support to compete.
Haynesley Benn is the new Minister of Agriculture who is accountable for the performance of this ministry in Barbados. We can vouch that this is a man who has a great love and appreciation for agriculture and the benefit it has for any country. A country must have an agriculture base! In the last administration there was the misguided view that because production costs make it convenient to import most of our food, this was the direction to go. Consequently green plants have gradually been replaced with those of concrete. It did not seem to matter that the ability to produce food, although we are not able to be self-sufficient gives Barbadians the ability to reduce our import bill – i.e. opportunity costs benefits by saving scare foreign exchange, concentrate on quality produce, engage the land to prevent wastelands and employ a section of the labour force which is ‘unskilled’ which preempts social alienation among this group.
It should be obvious why we have picked this story. As we bang on the keyboard the world continues to stave-off a food crisis. Our agriculture industry will more and more assume a greater importance in our everyday quest to feed our nation and region. We say region because the opportunity exist in a CSME context for Barbadian farmers to create production systems which could stretch beyond our shores-that is if the current crop of leaders are able to get it off the ground!
The idiotic example of a farmer not knowing how to create distribution channels by using basic marketing techniques is unacceptable at this time.
The blogmaster invites you to join the discussion.