BU commenter Colonel Buggy responded to the question on the blog Tourism Sector a Cadre of Beggars – what is the answer for food security and the reduction of the food import bill in Barbados …?
First of all we have to instil in our people the need to eat what we grow, and not to hanker for the fast foods, whose raw materials are mostly imported. Or, as the Dipper would have said, we have to take back the hearts and minds of our people from the Confederate Colonel of the South.
Free up some of the hundreds of acres of former productive lands, now in bush, to persons interested in farming.
Allow farmers, who so wish to live on the land, even if they are restricted to chattel homes only, as this is one measure that will minimise the incidents of praedial larceny. And all farmers living on and working their lands should be exempt the impost of this increase in land tax,which came in the guise of a solid waste tax.
Many countries give meaningful concessions to farmers, i.e. duty free equipment. In Barbados, concessions are so petty and bureaucratic that many farmers prefer not to bother with them. During the last war, and subsequently in National Service, in the UK, many farmers and farm workers were exempt military service, as farming was seen as an essential National Service of its own.And this is still true today.
Either the Ministry of Agriculture, or a Farmers Cooperative should be encouraged to act as their own import agency, for all of their needs, from tractors to plant seeds, thus by- passing the exorbitant prices levelled on them by the greedy merchants in Barbados.
Get the Agricultural Extension Officers out of their comfortable air-condition offices, and out into the field, like their predecessors who were frequently visiting and advising farmers, and to the extent of recommending what crops individual farmers should concentrate on to prevent a glut and wastage.
Down in Farmers St Andrew C.O Williams has diverted some six springs, to a central dam providing water to his Apes Hill and other golf courses. Water costs to the farmer is very high,and the Ministry of Agriculture should be looking at harnessing the run off rain water, like the billions of gallons which ran into the Atlantic Ocean last Friday morning, as well as from the many springs found in St Joseph, St Thomas and the St John area, which the marijuana farmers are making very good use of.
Supermarkets, hotels, restaurants and big food retailers should be encouraged, especially if they are given some government concessions, not to exclude the small/medium farmer in preference for the bigger guys, who most of the times, have connections.
As is evident, many Barbadians have shied away from farming because of the unwarranted stigma attached to it. Some years ago, many of the places in the agricultural food belt, like in St George, Gibbons Boggs, farms in the St John and St Joseph areas, had a high number of non-nationals engaged in the farming of those lands.Vegetables and other produce were in abundance. Today, Gibbons Boggs is virtually closed down, and those food producing farms are mostly manned by a reduce work force of non-nationals. Perhaps, we should consider bringing in non-nationals, under contract, to work our lands, the same way that we send our people to Canada and the United States.
But isn’t it a “growing” shame that every Tom Dick and Harriett are jumping on the band wagon calling for the legalising and production of Marijuana in Barbados, as it will bring millions of dollars into the country, but are otherwise blind to the fact that if we start to eat most of what we grow, that it will stop even more millions of dollars from leaving these shores.
If we continue to sit back and do nothing, our food will be secured indeed, but it will come at an even higher price, when the thousands of acres of farmland leased by the Simpson Motors Empire in Guyana begin to bear fruit.
The blogmaster invites you to join the discussion.