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Agriculture…It’s All We Really Have

Submitted by Old Onions Bag Yes Barbados, it’s all we really have and cancould be the way forward. That is if we act NOW.  The Food index as predicted, rose last week. We are continually being told of a corn shortage in the future.  Corn is a feed all, both people and animals. Why don’t…

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Submitted by Old Onions Bag
David Estwick, Minister of Agriculture

Yes Barbados, it’s all we really have and cancould be the way forward. That is if we act NOW.  The Food index as predicted, rose last week. We are continually being told of a corn shortage in the future.  Corn is a feed all, both people and animals. Why don’t we see stockpiling of the seed and a renewed revolutionize  planting thrust in progress around the country side ? Why Why ?

We have sweet potatoes and yams. I would hope some stockpiling is going on now in times of plenty. Is this not what taking advantage of fore-knowledge is all about ? “To be fore-warned is to be fore armed.”
By now with all these warnings (for about eight months now) we are not seeing the Ministry of Agriculture engaged in the necessary action…we should be seeing  purchasing of tractors and ploughing equipment (stockpiling of spares) now they are still relatively cheap. If we are wrong.. Mr. Estwick should be advising us what is being done. The silence from him and others is deafening.

Why are we waiting for the GREAT SHORTAGE to start before we act? Why?  Is it that we don’t believe there will be a shortage? Predictive indicators are showing  and correctly …a time of shortage is coming and not very far away. Wake up Barbados…ACT NOW ! We should be planting. Agriculture is all we have and can be our saviour.

91 responses to “Agriculture…It’s All We Really Have”

  1. ac Avatar
    ac

    the problem that we have here is world hunger and until a feasable alternative is found to eradicating world hunger the reality is that monsanto seeds would be the quickest solution to feeding people since the quick demand for food outspace production also natural and unforseen disasters play a pivotal role in slowing production down.

  2. Ras Jahaziel Avatar
    Ras Jahaziel

    To DAVID the moderator

    Seeing that noibody will answer my questions can you make any helpful input?

  3. Colonel Buggy Avatar
    Colonel Buggy

    Having a good agricultural base, especially if its in the hands of the majority of the very Bajans who will subscribe to it will not sit well with the present distributive sector, who stocked their supermarkets and warehouses with some “fresh” vegetables from Canada, and tinned stuff not produced or packaged in Barbados. These are the same people who give much support to the various political parties, and no Government, whether B or D cares much about biting the hands that feed it. Like the new hospital and a new sugar factory et al, any promise of a resurgence of the agricultural sector to the level of the 60’s and 70’s, will remain ,just that.

  4. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @ Ras Jahaziel | February 22, 2012 at 9:25 PM |

    Same state of affairs as you left it. Might be even worse since tracts of once arable land now lie overgrown with bush and vermin. The CLICO own plantations are now wastelands. Many young people who were promised the opportunities to lease land to do small scale farming have become disillusioned because of unfulfilled promises. Much land has been taken out of agriculture ready to be sold by the white realtors to suspect foreign buyers for a few US dollars more to keep the addiction of conspicuous consumption fed and the inevitable collapse of the corrupt system at bay for a year or so.

  5. Colonel Buggy Avatar
    Colonel Buggy

    @Ras Jahaziel. .
    Much of the former good agricultural land in Barbados can now be categorised as ‘Rab land” having been taken out of production , and, if left in such a state for a certain period,the change of land use policy kicks in, and that land may be used for purposes other than agriculture,ie golf courses, polo fields,or housing developments.
    Bajans do own a considerable amount of land , but very little of it is in agriculture, mainly because not many of us, have the will or the stomach to take on the hard life of agriculture . We may talk about it till the COW comes home, but very few of us want to be directly associated with agriculture. Agriculture is for the ones from the tennantry and those who went to school at West or Princess Margaret etc.
    I remember full well those days when people eeked out a living working land on the slopes and swamps in St Thomas and St Joseph. The villagers of Mount Wilton Scotland / Richmond worked a lot of hillside land there , but the entire community was broken up due to the then government’s fears of a threat of a landslide,and they were all moved lock stock and barrel to areas where there could no longer be engaged in agriculture ,for themselves. Shortly afterwards people like Don Hill from the Telephone Company and Parson of Parson pest control proceeded to build homes in Mount Wilton Scotland / Richmond, the area we now know as the Flower Forest ,with the blessing of the government and Town and Country Planning.
    Nothing has changed, but I believe you know the answers all along.

  6. readydone Avatar
    readydone

    I hear you RP i love organic food too! it makes you much more energetic. But it can be so expensive to shop at organic food shops and Farming is hard it is much easier to go to the supermarket. People just don’t know how to farm, they don’t even know how to cut their own lawns, nuff don’t even know how to roast a bread fruit.

    Basic knowledge of farming is lost for sure. But if you reach those that are willing you can make a difference.

    The first thing we would have to do is to form a group of interested persons in agriculture.

  7. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    Colonel Buggy “categorised as ‘Rab land” having been taken out of production , and, if left in such a state for a certain period,the change of land use policy kicks in, and that land may be used for purposes other than agriculture,ie golf courses, polo fields,or housing developments.”

    This makes my blood boil.

    We so called educated intelligent Bajans allow prime agricultural land to be reclassified because it is taken out of production for a few years. How can land that is producing vegetables and root crops become eligible for a change of use.

    Oh yeah. big profit,big commissions, big Lawyers fees and healthy donations to political campaigns.

    The day will come when even the golf courses will have to be dug up to grow food.

  8. David Avatar
    David

    @Hants

    Your blood will continue to boil because the government in waiting has a policy of land fetching its highest economic value.

  9. Ras Jahaziel Avatar
    Ras Jahaziel

    TO Colonel Buggy and millertheanunnaki

    OK thanks for your responses but
    re : “Bajans do own a considerable amount of land”
    Something must have changed or I just never went to those neighborhoods where such Bajans live.

    Those that I knew lived on HOUSE SPOTS with very little extra room for farming, and the wide open fields that grew sugar cane and other agricultural products generally belonged to white boys, so I concluded that it was fair to say that FOR THE MOST PART BLACK BAJANS ARE A LANDLESS PEOPLE.

    Would you say that the amount who do own land are enough to negate this theory? And if one wanted to purchase land for agriculture would the price be in a range that is attainable by the majority of Bajans?

    From what I can remember of the history of Barbados, most of the arable land was under the control of the plantation owners, and those that were brought to the west as slaves were restricted to conjested tenantries so that THEIR LABOR WOULD ALWAYS BE AVAILABLE TO THE LAND LORDS.

    The whole arrangement was set up to create something called CAPTIVE LABOR, and even after emancipation THE LABORER WOULD STILL BE THE LABORER even if he was now wearing A COLLAR AND A TIE and driving a car.

    Has this land arrangement become more equitable?

    Have the “former” slaves graduated to a position where they are no longer compelled by invisible economic forces to sell their labor to those that enslaved their foreparents?

    In a general sense if you had to draw a line between those who OWN land and capital and THOSE WHO ONLY OWN LABOR would it reflect a different racial pattern to that which existed in the early plantation days?

    Considering that there are always exceptions to the general rule I am trying to find out something about THE MAJORITY whose parents cut cane and were worked to death on malnutrition foods. Which side of THE OWNERSHIP DEVIDE do the majority of them occupy today?

  10. David Avatar
    David

    @Ras Jahaziel

    Perhaps the clarification needed is that Barbadians own more titles to land which is separate to owning large tracts of land.

  11. readydone Avatar
    readydone

    If I wanted to find out about the history of land use in Barbados how would I go about that?
    Bajans are good and a lot of talk but facts speaks for their self, it would be interested to see how much land has been taking out of agricultural use over the years in relation to population growth, And the change in size of plots being sold.
    Is there some where we could find this information without making 10000 phone calls?

  12. David Avatar
    David

    @readydone

    The Town Planning Department is a good place to start.

  13. Rosemary Parkinson Avatar
    Rosemary Parkinson

    All I can today is that if the whole island went organic…prices would not be more for organic….it would be natural to have organic. Michael, the organic farmer from St. Lucy, saves money by not having to use pesticides and he has beautiful produce…and it is no more expensive than what others are selling…..the organic guys can be found at Cheapside Market (under the stairs going to the Food Court – great place to eat by the way…Miss Hariette is pure yum! when it comes to her food) and Michael is at Holders Market every Sunday…..and by the way….if you would like to know a little strange stuff about organic, visit this site. Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of Health…watch this! Very, very interesting…..

    http://wakeup-world.com/2012/01/19/kirlian-photography-demonstrates-organic-uncooked-food-have-stronger-energy-fields/

  14. Colonel Buggy Avatar
    Colonel Buggy

    Much of the formerly productive lands which are now in ” bush”, are occasionally weeded , using a D8 Caterpillar bulldozer. Along with the trees removed , goes a considerable amount of earth to the land fill or wherever, pretty soon all that will be left is the rock base. Objective achieved.
    BTW. Ras Jahaziel..Mrs Rock of the Rocklyn Bus Company fame, now deceased, owned and left a chain of plantations in the St Joseph/St Andrew area, most of which are now in grass or bush. Some years ago, I was travelling in the Cambridge St Joseph area, and noticed loads of harvested canes lying in the field approaching a state of decay, and when I enquired what had happened, I was informed that the plantation had changed ownership, and those workers who previously had worked faithfully for the traditional plantation owner, now did not want to work for the man from St Philip. And herein lies one of our problems,and not only in agriculture.

  15. old onion bags Avatar
    old onion bags

    So wait Buggy …you would work for anybody and evabody….even if dey treat like a dog ?

  16. Ras Jahaziel Avatar
    Ras Jahaziel

    RE:
    “Perhaps the clarification needed is that Barbadians own more titles to land which is separate to owning large tracts of land.”

    Within that I see something called UNRESOLVED BONDAGE.
    It is unresolved bondage because when a people’s existence is confined to the small space of A HOUSE SPOT IN A TENANTRY they are condemned to remain in THE SAME POOL OF CAPTIVE LABOR as their foreparents.

    Even if the people wear COLLARS AND TIES that are made of cloth instead of COLLARS AND TIES that are made of metal they are still a part of that exploitable resource called CAPTIVE LABOR.

    Do you know that there was a time when we were less DOMESTICATED when we would have had a problem with that?

    In case anybody is wondering this is VERY MUCH a part of that topic called AGRICULTURE.

  17. Colonel Buggy Avatar
    Colonel Buggy

    old onion bags | February 23, 2012 at 4:39 PM |
    So wait Buggy …you would work for anybody and evabody….even if dey treat like a dog ?
    +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
    Sometimes we do not even give our own the chance to treat us anywhere near the dog that the old plantation owners treated us like.

  18. Colonel Buggy Avatar
    Colonel Buggy

    @RJ
    Within that I see something called UNRESOLVED BONDAGE.
    It is unresolved bondage because when a people’s existence is confined to the small space of A HOUSE SPOT IN A TENANTRY they are condemned to remain in THE SAME POOL OF CAPTIVE LABOR as their foreparents.
    .*************************************************************************
    UNRESOLVED BONDAGE also comes in the form of a mental house spot .

  19. Ras Jahaziel Avatar
    Ras Jahaziel

    PLEASE OPEN YOU EYES TO SEE THE IMPLICATIONS OF CAPTIVE LABOR

    ACCESS TO LAND IS A GOD GIVEN RIGHT that has been taken away by the slave master.

  20. Ras Jahaziel Avatar
    Ras Jahaziel

    Agriculture…IT’S ALL WE REALLY HAVE??????

    WHICH WE?

    Is this the voice of THE LAND LORDS?
    Is this the voice of THE LABORERS?

    Which entity in the society can truly refer to AGRICULTURE as something that WE really have?

    Can you fully discuss AGRICULTURE without discussing LAND, HISTORY, AND CULTURE?????
    SEE
    http://www.rastafarivisions.com/features/questions

  21. Rosemary Parkinson Avatar
    Rosemary Parkinson

    Just another little push to reality:

  22. Ras Jahaziel Avatar
    Ras Jahaziel

    First I want to say that if you look at the post on DECRIMINALIZATION OF HERB and this post on Agriculture there is a connection.

    Now I just saw this piece below in The Nation, and it too is connected. SEE THE CUT AND PASTE BELOW.

    Perhaps the moderator can start a new thread with this info below that it can be fully discussed. IT NEEDS TO BE, because IT IS ABOUT THE FUTURE OF YOUR CHILDREN.

    This is something that requires you as a nation to stand down The Queen and let her know that you are not against homosexuals personally, BUT YOU ARE AGAINST INSTITUTIONALIZING HOMOSEXUALITY IN YOUR CULTURE.

    ANYBODY WHO KEEPS SILENT ON THIS ISSUE IS GUILTY OF COLLABORATION.

    STAND UP AND IDENTIFY WITH HAMMY ON THIS ISSUE and do not let him stand alone. Else your silence will tell us where you stand.

    Protest over Royal visit
    printshare5 comments Hamilton Lashley (FP)
    By Dawne Parris | Fri, February 24, 2012 – 12:10 AM
    BARBADOS ROLLED OUT THE RED CARPET for the Earl and Countess of Wessex yesterday, but not without protest.

    Government MP Hamilton Lashley boycotted events organized for the Royal couple’s state visit, the first being the Joint Sitting of Parliament, to take a stand against Britain over its controversial Air Passenger Duty (APD) and its threat to suspend aid to countries that ban homosexuality.

    Lashley told the WEEKEND NATION in a telephone interview shortly after the end of the sitting that his absence was intended “to let the British Government know that as a Member of Parliament of Barbados I am very angry at the position that they’re taking against us and other small island states, as well as other African countries”.

    “Some Barbadians, particularly those in my age group that grew up like me, stupid under the Union Jack, are not going to like my actions and they’re probably going to condemn me but I have to live with myself and who I am as a Black person. Rather than just sitting down and being a recipient of the threats and the impositions by the British Prime Minister, I’ve decided that Hamilton Lashley is going to take a stand,” he said.

    Read the full story in today’s WEEKEND NATION.

  23. Ras Jahaziel Avatar
    Ras Jahaziel

    TO DAVID
    As suggested above what about making a new topic on this issue?
    IS THIS A NON-ISSUE OR IS IT AN ISSUE THAT SHOULD BE DISCUSSED?

    SEE:
    President Mugabe Tells British Prime Minister ‘To Hell With You’ Over Gay Rights
    February 26, 2012 | Filed under: Africa,Featured | Posted by: Editorial_Staff
    17

    President Mugabe during his birthday celebrations

    Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe on Saturday told British Prime Minister David Cameron “to hell with you” over his calls to respect gay rights.
    “Nature is nature. It has created male and female,” Mugabe told thousands of supporters at his 88th birthday celebration at a stadium in the eastern border town of Mutare.

    “You David Cameron, are you suggesting that you don’t know that or is it some kind of insanity or part of the culture of Europeans.

    “In their newspapers, that’s one of my sins. That I called (gays) worse than pigs and dogs because pigs know there are males and females. It’s even in the Bible that you create through the system of marrying.

    “That’s how we were born, so we reject that outright and say to hell with you. I won’t even call him a dog because my own dog will complain and say, but what have I done.”

    Cameron said at the Commonwealth summit last year that countries receiving British aid should respect human rights, including gay rights.

    The issue has re-emerged as Zimbabwe drafts a new constitution, with debate on whether to follow neighbouring South Africa’s model and include gay rights in the charter.

    Mugabe urged youths to reject any provision for gay rights in the new charter.

    “We won’t accept that,” he said. “There are other countries who have accepted that and put it in their constitutions.”

    “Please, young men and women, you don’t have the freedom for men to marry men and women to marry women. You have the freedom for men to marry women. That’s God’s freedom. That’s what created you and me.”

    Mugabe has for decades have stood firm against the white homosexual agenda.

    His latest remarks on the non-issue came as UN Secretary General and European puppet Ban Ki-moon repeated his demand that African countries respect gay rights, during a visit to neighbouring Zambia.
    You may also like these related articles

  24. David Avatar
    David

    @Ras

    What specifically would you like raised in a new blog? The issue of Barbados operating under a constitutional monarch?

  25. Ras Jahaziel Avatar
    Ras Jahaziel

    NO MAN. That can be discussed some time later, but what I am talkiing about is the fact that THE SAME COLONIAL POWERS that invaded Africa and put Black people in slavery and took away their lands, and their language, and their names, and their culture and impverished them are now trying to go further in IMPOSING THEIR GRECO-ROMAN WORLD VIEW ON AFRICANS.

    See what Muguabe is saying. ALL AFRICAN COUNTRIES PLUS THE CARIBBEAN, that means Black people throughout the world are being PRESSURED to follow the MAN MARRYING MAN CULTURE.

    WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR THE FUTURE OF YOUR CHILDREN that we always talk like we are so concerned about?

    This is a step by step thing. Your children will soon be taught that if boys feel like girls there is something normal with that, and if they feel that they should come to school in dresses, there is something normal with that.

    Cant you all see how THE WHORE OF BABYLON is trying to make alll nations drunk with her abominations?

    I am thinking that none of us can afford to keep silent.

    The church and everybody should be speaking out.

    But this is tied in to what we were talking about earlier: CAPTIVE LABOR.

    All of those collared and tied men that laid out the red carpet are showing you how COLLARED AND TIED they are.

    They have lost their manhood and cannot STAND UPRIGHT and let the Greco-Romans know that we as Africans have a different world view.

    If there must be silence about this issue then forget about talking about HOW THE YOUTHS GET SO.

    How come nobody is standing up and strengthening Hammy on this issue?

    Is it as he said because of being STUPID UNDER THE UNION JACK where the white man has to be your master continually?

    So this should be the discussion. HAVE BAJAN SPINES TURNED TO JELLY, so that they can continue to bend you, shape you, and rearange you in THEIR IMAGE?

    Why is everybody loosing their voice and clearing their throats now that it is time to speak up?

  26. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @Ras Jahaziel | February 27, 2012 at 5:41 PM |
    “So this should be the discussion. HAVE BAJAN SPINES TURNED TO JELLY, so that they can continue to bend you, shape you, and rearange you in THEIR IMAGE?”

    The die has already been cast! These people have already been moulded in the image as determined by their masters. Thanks to religion and a Victorian-age education system. Just look at those “educted’ black men attending the functions recently held for the British royals. All straight jacketed in ill-fitting cloth and tie inappropriate for a Tropical climate and looking most uncomfortable. Don’t expect to see in your lifetime any change to Bim becoming a republic with any severed ties to the British Monarchy. That talk of republican status soon is all hot air and neigh impractical.

  27. old onion bags Avatar
    old onion bags

    @ Cornel Buggys
    Sometimes we do not even give our own the chance to treat us anywhere near the dog that the old plantation owners treated Cornal Buggy

    Buggys boy sometime we own does treat we worse. How a man we put to represent D people cud …do them policy pensioners so ? Look when you go work for a company after 2 year they does take out pension (not your choice of investing)and lodge it wid a company..think it is fair a PM could set up plans to help thief it…ya own breds

  28. old onion bags Avatar
    old onion bags

    Thanks David…….here is the article Mr. Minister…..submitted back in February 2012

  29. old onion bags Avatar
    old onion bags

    Mr. Estwick…..I have written this article since February….this is watlessless now..We still have time……the plan is for the prices of agricultural commodities to skyrocket…..I AM NOT A PROPHET OF DOOM NOR GLOOM..get up off your arse and do what we put you there to do..WORK !

  30. old onion bags Avatar
    old onion bags

    Mr. Minister
    What has become of the 5 tractors….that were supposedly on order…DEM reach yet ? Or was that like Benn, bare bogus slack talk?

  31. old onion bags Avatar
    old onion bags

    @Colonel Buggy
    As Senator Chandler pointed out it would take a good “share’ of starvation to bring us to a state of reality.
    **************************
    The Good Senator could very well be RIGHT!

  32. old onion bags Avatar
    old onion bags

    Miller
    Just a redirect………Minister got D Horn Blower treatment eva sense… sent out since February…why if he was listening….by now we would be seeing crops..What 5 tractors coming ?

    SOS Thread.Aug.2012

  33. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @ old onion bags | August 13, 2012 at 6:18 PM |

    Onions, and to think that the DLP was exceedingly critical of the agricultural sector and its performance under the BLP!
    What have they done for agriculture to justify their coming to office? This is one sector that they can’t blame the international recession on. As a matter of fact the same recession should have acted as a fillip or catalyst to spur local production and serious changes to the Praedial Larceny Act. The only thing this government got to show for agriculture is James Paul belching hot air and the Ministry being used as a political graveyard for Estwick. If your man Fumble was a real political tactician and really showed he learnt from Cammie he would have reshuffled his Cabinet and let Chris the Unclear prove himself in this vital industry and allow Estwick to achieve his dreams. But Mr. Fumble let down his good friend the doc’s dead brother and as a result he would be haunted by the ghosts of both TE and DT at his coming electoral funeral.
    I would hate to see the Senator’s word come true but seeing what is happening with sugar nothing is surprising with this incompetent administration which has resorted to begging for second term to totally destroy this country.

  34. old onion bags Avatar
    old onion bags

    Hey !….has anyone seen or heard anything of 5 spanking new John Deere tractors which were supposed to restart some sorta new agricultural thrust as promised by Dr.Estwick ? Why since February we been hollaring like prairie dogs on BU …..of shortages of corn and seed coming (intro)….but nay…not a farthing….why if yams and potatoes were planted then we would be reaping. Now we hear again….as predicted BRACE….coy coy.

  35. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    @old onion bags,

    Page 1 of BarbadosToday……..sweeeeet.

  36. Colonel Buggy Avatar
    Colonel Buggy

    But isn’t it a shame that we have warehouses stacked to the roof with beer, and comparatively very little food stuff in reserve.
    Why is there a shortage of wheat and corn in the USA .On a visit to one of the agricultural belts a few years ago, an associate pointed out to me the number of extra silos that farmers had to put in place to deal with the glut of output due to GM. Some of these farmers, I was told, had to seek employment in the city,as the mountain of wheat and corn and soya were not moving. Is the USA now doing like the EU and creating artificial shortages by taking much of these products out of circulation, and eventually passing them on to Russia and China?

  37. old onion bags Avatar
    old onion bags

    @Colonel
    Is the USA now doing like the EU and creating artificial shortages by taking much of these products out of circulation, and eventually passing them on to Russia and China?
    ****************************
    Messing up the financial markets has not worked completely…..so they trying planned food crop manipulations….In all …an attempt to re gain prowess and on a ONE WORLD GOVT…..coming out of the chaos.” Amrecuua the harlot.”Babylon the unmerciful”…..quite engaging..rock to the legs of iron, with dispatch….no meteorite.

  38. old onion bags Avatar
    old onion bags

    Listening to Q FM (on now)..I heard that corn moved from $3.50 bushel…to now $7.50 Bushel……Mr. Min. where are the 5 tractors that were coming to plough? Why havent we planted up some corn fields yet and started stock piling seed?..WHAT ARE WE WAITING ON???

    COME ON MAN…are we waiting for the LAST MINUTE….cheezon breds!

  39. old onion bags Avatar
    old onion bags

    What does a Min Agriculture do nowadays anyway?…..What what..?

  40. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @ old onion bags | October 4, 2012 at 9:25 AM |

    We are waiting for the words of Senator Chandler to come true. Starvation will be the Mother Saviour of local agriculture. Just a matter of time, Onions.! When the Iran/Israel inevitable conflagration erupts many will be running to squat on the CLICO lands for sustenance.
    You should advise the Minister to stock up the seed bank but not with the Monsanto varieties since he will be buying a eunuch in a bag.

  41. old onion bags Avatar
    old onion bags

    MOA

    The rains are comin …Is time to plant…order in the tractors..put people to work..start lowerin D food import Bill….WHAT YA WAITIN ON ?

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