est. 2007

Barbados Underground

Bringing News and Opinions to the People

,

Is Agriculture and Food Security Important?

stpn-i-weir-blp
Indar Weir, Minister of Agriculture and Food Security

The Ministry of Agriculture under the leadership of David Estwick in the former government became an invisible ministry. While we accept that a lack of resources would have impacted how government carried out its business, a nation that relegates food security to the back burner should expect to be haunted by the decision in a volatile global sphere.

How difficult is it to cultivate linkages between locally produced agriculture, tourism, government (Barbados School Meals, Queen Elizabeth Hospital) and the wider community to guarantee sufficient demand? What is the scorecard of the Barbados Agriculture Society (BAS)? The output from the agriculture sector based on the central bank reports tracking GDP by Sector and Acticity has not shown any appreciable increase in the last decade.

A few weeks ago BU family member Bentley Norville shared the following document to poke those currently responsible to prioritized matters pertaining to agriculture. We hope current minister of agriculture and FOOD SECURITY Indar Weir takes heed.

278 responses to “Is Agriculture and Food Security Important?”

  1. Georgie Porgie Avatar
    Georgie Porgie

    The Nutrition was run by Dr Frank Ramsey, a paediatrician and a pioneer in Publlic Health in Barbados with Sir Maurice Byer. It used to be at the back of out patients by the playing field by the river

  2. Georgie Porgie Avatar
    Georgie Porgie

    Nutrition Center

  3. John Avatar
    John

    I was wondering why the use of trellises/staking was not practiced in Barbados.

    I have so far come up with two reasons.

    Most of the ground provisions are/were grown in fields that are several acres and to do that over such a large area is probably not be cost effective.

    Easier to leave a 2 foot (or more) space between plants and let the vines run on the ground but at the rate yams grow they soon interfere with one another’s access to the sun. However they do provide a means of weed control.

    Also, in days gone by Barbados was kept like a garden so where would the number of stakes needed be found to deal with field of 6 or more acres?

    Today with the amount of land in bush and Miamosi/River Tamarind the material is there to hand.

  4. Are-we-there-yet Avatar
    Are-we-there-yet

    PUDRYR

    Thanks for that submission at 1:20 pm. It made me feel encouraged that I might still be on the right path re. the contributions I have made to BU over the years.

    Thanks again.

  5. Are-we-there-yet Avatar
    Are-we-there-yet

    John, re. your 5:25 pm post

    I think you may be on the right track re. the relative economics of the staking / ground placement cultivation methods.

    Where I have seen yams staked in Jamaica, St Vincent, St Lucia, Dominica, Antigua, and Ghana, the yams were not in large fields but relatively small areas. Planting them in mutiples of acres on a Plantation in Barbados using stakes or trellises on which to train the leaves would have been unlikely to have been economic even if the material for the stakes were abundant and free. Hence it seems feasible that your suggestion could explain why we do not seem to have a history of growing yams on stakes or trellises

    But there would have been no good economic reason for small farmers or backyard growers not to have used stakes or trellises if the method gave rise to significantly increased yields as compared to planting on the flat. I think that people tried. I know that the Ministry of Agriculture tried and apparently abandoned the attempt if my memory serves me correctly. Could it have had anything to do with any unique characteristics of the Crop Lisbon variety of yam which was our staple in those days? Could there have been some physiological aspect of that variety that would maximise the production of nutrients for the leaves growing near the soil line and essentially wasting the input from the increased leaf cover leaves to the yam roots? The tools available nowadays for research to solve that problem should be available to the Ministry of Agriculture.

    But my call out to you was for you to use your historical research skills to identify if, sometime in the historical past, the bajan small farmer or plantation tenant, might have planted yams with the leaves trained to grow on stakes or trellises. A look through old pictures at the Museum or scanning Ligon and Schonburgh and the old Journals of the Bdos Museum and Historical Society might be useful.

    I think such research might become of quite significant value to the majority of local folk here in Barbados when the coming austerity measures hit home.

  6. Are-we-there-yet Avatar
    Are-we-there-yet

    Another aspect of the crop physiology which I forgot to mention above is that perhaps with our yams the increased leaf growth on trellises might have produced giant yams rather than more yams of our preferred size distribution.

  7. Georgie Porgie Avatar
    Georgie Porgie

    @ joHN June 28, 2018 5:25 PM
    dIDNT WE PLANT YAMS ETC IN OUR INTER CROPPING SCENARIO AS A PLOY TO PROTECT THE YOUNG CANE PLANT IN THE CANE HOLES UNTIL THE CANE PLANT WAS SETTLED?

  8. John Avatar
    John

    Yams are planted in May in fallow ground before re-planting in cane in the following year in November.

    Crop rotation.

    http://www.infonet-biovision.org/PlantHealth/Crop-rotation

    “Crop rotation is a practice of growing different crops on the same land in a regular recurring sequence. It means the planned order of specific crops planted on the same field. It also means that the succeeding crop belongs to a different family than the previous one. The planned rotation may vary from 2 or 3 years to longer period. Rotation of crops is not only necessary to offer a diverse “diet” to the soil microorganisms, but as they are rooting at different soil depths hence are capable to explore the different soil layers for nutrients. Nutrients that have been leached to deeper layers and that are no longer available for the commercial crop can be “recycled” by the crops in rotation. This way the rotation crops function as biological pumps. Furthermore, a diversity of crops in rotation leads to a diverse soil flora and fauna, as the roots excrete different organic substances that attract different types of bacteria and fungi, which in turn, play an important role in the transformation of these substances into plant available nutrients. The most important reason of crop rotation is to hinder the development of weeds, arthropod pests and short-persistent soil-borne diseases by reducing their population levels in the soil.

    Many of the pests and diseases that plague vegetable plants live in the soil. A common source of soil-borne problems is the seedbed. If a farmer has a problem with his or her seedbed it may mean that plants are infected/infested very early and never have a chance to thrive. Often seedbeds are drenched with pesticide to prevent this.

    Another and more common source of soil-borne pest and disease infection is the main production field itself. If a farmer grows crops in the same category year after year on the same land an almost certain result is a build up of pest and disease problems. “

  9. John Avatar
    John

    But there would have been no good economic reason for small farmers or backyard growers not to have used stakes or trellises if the method gave rise to significantly increased yields as compared to planting on the flat.

    ++++++++++++++++++++

    In talking with my old timer friend, when I suggested the idea he at first pooh poohed it on the grounds that in the years he worked in the fields on a plantation something like that was never done!!

    He can give me exact spacings he came and found which work.

    He did admit that sometimes there were small yams dug but with so many yams being dug, my guess is it didn’t matter.

    Most people in the past thought in terms of large scale farming, and practiced the techniques they saw working in a plantation setting in their own small plots.

    Yams are a long term crop and in the rough and tumble of life they would have been planted and reaped as a matter of course ….. almost without thinking.

  10. Georgie Porgie Avatar
    Georgie Porgie

    VERY GOOD CONTRIBUTION JOHN

    It seems that the stone that the BU brimblers like to refuse has become the head stone of the corner here.

  11. Are-we-there-yet Avatar
    Are-we-there-yet

    John and GP.

    Let me quote part of what I said above with some words emphasized in italics to facilitate your understanding of my post

    ….But there would have been no good economic reason for small farmers or backyard growers NOT to have used stakes or trellises if the method gave rise to significantly increased yields as compared to planting on the flat.……….

    mellow!!

  12. pieceuhderockyeahright Avatar
    pieceuhderockyeahright

    Dr. GP

    Take a look at the integrity in Public Life Bill 2018.

    And do let me know your thoughts.

  13. Are-we-there-yet Avatar
    Are-we-there-yet

    PUDRYR; re. your 1:55 am post;
    Where is the bill or draft bill?

    David: I haven’t seen any posts by Bushtea for a few weeks. That’s not like him. Does the WordPress Dashboard allow owners to monitor individual log-ons to the site? If so, Is he still actively monitoring BU?

  14. David Avatar
    David

    @AWTY

    Bush tea is around.

    The answer is no to your other query.

  15. David Avatar
    David

    Interesting decision by the government to important coconut trees. More interesting is the comment from former MP James Paul and head of the Barbados Agricultural Society to support.

    The local demand for coconut is high.water

  16. Georgie Porgie Avatar
    Georgie Porgie

    RE David: I haven’t seen any posts by Bushtea for a few weeks. That’s not like him.

    maybe he tired calling us brassbowls and insulting THE LORD JESUS CHRIST IN WHOM HE DOES NOT BELIEVE AND WHOM HE CALLS BBE

  17. Georgie Porgie Avatar
    Georgie Porgie

    nOW THIS IS INTERESTING
    ITS NOT FOOD SECURITY
    BUT IT AFFECTS LAND USE
    http://www.nationnews.com/nationnews/news/171617/farmer-hails-king-grass

  18. Simple Simon Avatar
    Simple Simon

    Today: Mashed yellow sweet potatoes mashed with apple sauce. I would have preferred golden apple sauce but none available today, so I will use “English” apples. A tiny little bit of Bajan brown sugar to sweeten. Black belly lamb stew. The free kale which another small farmer gave be earlier in the week is the side dish.

    Gone for now. I promised that lunch will be ready at 11.

  19. Are-we-there-yet Avatar
    Are-we-there-yet

    GP; re. your 8:12 am post.

    If you had been paying interest you would have seen mention in some earlier post that Food security is multifactored and could include any enterprise that reduces outflows of foreign currency or increases inflows and thereby allows the country to purchase the foreign foods that it needs. The king grass and River Tamarind projects might appear to you to be running counter to your understanding of food security because it is taking up land that could have been used for sugar cane cultivation. But it is expected to be drastically reducing FX outflows for oil importss. That is what the WTE projects are all about and what the Renewable Energy projects like Photovoltaics etc. are all about.

    The modern concept of Food security is linked with almost everything that impinges on the ability of the nation to provide nutritious food for all its inhabitants. If you were sending back some of your FX from Florida to purchase food for your relatives here that would be a contribution to food security. If you are utilizing our FX here in such a way that it is inaccessible for the purchase of food here, that would be reducing our food security.

    Yuh got it yet?

    I was trying to explain that to you from early on in this discussion when only David seemed to have got it. I accept it was my fault though. Too much pretty convoluted prose.

  20. Simple Simon Avatar
    Simple Simon

    I cut up, seasoned and refrigerated the lamb last night. Some of the herbs I grew myself, some I got free from other small farmers, some I bought from my favourite Rastafarian gentleman at Cheapside.

    AgriCULTURE.

  21. David Avatar
    David

    You can purchase all your vegetables from Cheapside on the weekend, many of the sellers have accents but …

  22. Georgie Porgie Avatar
    Georgie Porgie

    Are-we-there-yet June 29, 2018 9:37 AM
    chou ma mow
    chou ma ma ma mow
    you tink i really care about food security and modern concepts of food security
    I care about cricket, Bible and helping the wife pay our bills
    then when bored, I come here to mock and run old men like you ragged

  23. pieceuhderockyeahright Avatar
    pieceuhderockyeahright

    @ Dr. GP

    Here is the pernicious item

    Ostensibly called Integrity in Public Life Bill 2018

    https://www.barbadosparliament.com/bills/details/284

    It is one which fellows like Enuff have either not read of have not only read but realise that, hidden away from the eyes of the average bajan we have seen the manifestation of The Enabling Act of 1933!

    “…The Enabling Act gave Hitler plenary powers. It followed on the heels of the Reichstag Fire Decree, which abolished most civil liberties and transferred state powers to the Reich government.

    The combined effect of the two laws was to transform Hitler’s government into a legal dictatorship.

    The formal name of the Enabling Act was Gesetz zur Behebung der Not von Volk und Reich (“Law to Remedy the Distress of People and Reich”)…”

    And lest we continue along blindly in this folly about food security I shall give you a part of the Bill

    “…An investigative officer has the function of carrying out investigations in relation to any matter, whether or not involving an alleged offence, in respect of
    which the Commission exercises functions under this Act or any other enactment…”

    But fellows like Enuff, the Emissary of the saviour and champion of ye isle of Barbadoes, will try obfuscating the matter with their equivalencies about $500K, rather $10K show that Mia Cares and that ALL the nefarious passages in the Bill of Despotic Wrongs are necessary for “Integrity in Public Life”

  24. pieceuhderockyeahright Avatar
    pieceuhderockyeahright

    @ the Honourable Blogmaster your help is required for an item

  25. pieceuhderockyeahright Avatar
    pieceuhderockyeahright

    Once more a request for an item to GP that won’t post

  26. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    Why would Barbados grow grass to burn to convert to electricity?

    Barbados has over 3,000 hours of sunshine each year.

    Solar energy should be the replacement for oil generated electricity.

    Wind energy is also viable.

  27. Simple Simon Avatar
    Simple Simon

    @David June 29, 2018 9:40 AM “You can purchase all your vegetables from Cheapside on the weekend, many of the sellers have accents but.”

    I have no problem with accents. In my family of course we love our Bajans but we are also “aggressive” out marry-ers. We have married all over the Caribbean, Trinidad, Jamaica, St. Lucia, St. Kitts, St. Vincent; and into Central America, Africa, Asia and Europe.

    We have no problems with anybody’s accent, or colour, or religion or ethnicity, or where you or your parents were born. If you are human, yes, we will love you and marry you.

  28. pieceuhderockyeahright Avatar
    pieceuhderockyeahright

    I am laughing at this exercise and experience that morphs into a quasi censorship.

    But here is what de ole man proposes to do

    There are 3 main newspapers in Barbados

    Two of them are owned by the Barbados Labour Party and one though not owned by the Barbados Labour Party will sometimes defer to it

    But they all like Barbados Underground want readership.

    But unlike Barbados Underground, they don’t get paid Unless Their Newspapers Sell.

    So what de ole msn going do is very simple.

    I GOING ask dem for a pick

    All of dem, seriously ask, not like my former jokes cause this is too serious a matter to be playing these games with.

    And I will do two other things which i had held in abeyance

    Both on devices that you can’t see

    I also will send an Article to you for blogging called

    How “Mia Cares” – see her 2018 Law that WILL END ALL BAJAN FREEDOMS LIKE HITLER’S ENABLEMENT ACT OF 1933…

    I doubt that you will publish it but there are 2 other ones that will

  29. John Avatar
    John

    Why would Barbados grow grass to burn to convert to electricity?
    Barbados has over 3,000 hours of sunshine each year.
    Solar energy should be the replacement for oil generated electricity.
    Wind energy is also viable.

    ++++++++++++++++

    Here is the logic.

    Sugar is unprofitable. For every ton produced money is lost.

    For the moment, most of our energy is imported in the form of fossil fuel.

    Foreign exchange is required.

    Hence the King Grass.

    Fuel cane was at one time mooted and tried and the GOB has also tried Miamosi/River Tamarind.

    Pass the Belle and see examples.

    How I read the numbers for this enterprise is that Private Enterprise has diversified out of loss making sugar and into a different form of grass.

    They still maintain 30 odd acres of cane my bet as a seed store in case it ever becomes profitable again.

    The Enterprise does not seem to depend on Government just BL&P and ARMAG.

    Two crops a year are possible.

    More importantly, arable land stays arable.

    The 300 plus years of investment of labour and capital is not thrown away.

    Full marks for taking a lemon and making lemonade.

  30. Are-we-there-yet Avatar
    Are-we-there-yet

    John, re. your 4:49 pm post.

    Sounds fairly reasonable to me.

    Provides an aesthetic rescue from the River Tamarind project as the scenic outlook will be essentially maintained.

    Promises to add significantly to Barbados’ capacity to reduce our reliance on imported Oil,

    Does not take away from ongoing efforts to utilize Solar and Wind energy which also reduce our reliance on Imported Oil, at this time.

    Allows large farmers to utilize their lands in a productive and economic manner, after much of their lands were largely maintained and saved from bankruptcy by bipartisan Government policies.

    and does little substantive damage to the concepts of food security, at this time, except that it might possibly exclude a significant number of small land holders from gainful access to the process.

    Not bad, yuh!

  31. Are-we-there-yet Avatar
    Are-we-there-yet

    PUDRYR, at 11:08 am

    Thanks for posting the link to the draft Act

    You excerpted one portion of that draft act (reproduced below) seemingly to demonstrate the Act’s most germain aspect that suggests that it might be on par with the intent of the two laws which transformed Hitler’s government into a legal dictatorship.

    The excerpt was ““…An investigative officer has the function of carrying out investigations in relation to any matter, whether or not involving an alleged offence, in respect of which the Commission exercises functions under this Act or any other enactment…””

    The excerpt is actually the whole of Section 9 (2)

    I tried to see where this section merited being so highlighted and could find nothing obvious. I have no legal credentials so I would be most grateful if you would explain why that section might be an examplar of the egregious nature of the draft Act as you appear to be suggesting in your post.

  32. bajans Avatar
    bajans

    @ AWTY
    I think it is this phrase: “whether or not involving an alleged offence.” In other words, you do not have to have committed an offence, alleged, perceived or real to be investigated. I went to de stan pipe, so I could be wrong.
    .

  33. John Avatar
    John

    St. Thomas was always considered an agricultural parish.

    Here are the 56 plantations that existed in St. Thomas in the 1850’s and their acreages back then.

    Which one’s can you identify as being in hands of large farmers and suitable for agriculture?

    Can you identify the large farmers?

    Total acreage 8,387.5 Acres.

    Vaucluse 582
    Mount Wilton 525
    Applewhaites 456
    Dunscombe 375
    Fisher Pond 314
    Farmer’s 306
    Hopewell 300
    Walkes Spring 299
    Hillaby 297
    Bennett’s 292
    Clifton 241
    Lion Castle 234
    Mangrove Pond 234
    Cane Garden 232
    Edgehill 231
    Canefield 229
    Welchman Hall 214
    Ridgeway 212
    Content 211
    Duke’s 181.5
    Ashford 165
    Parkham Park 154
    Welches 153
    Highland 152
    Social Hall 142
    Sturges 134
    Groves 124
    Strong Hope 123
    Olive Branch 110
    Exchange 97
    Arthur’s Seat 95
    Mallards 92
    Bloomsbury 86
    Fortress 86
    Grandview 83
    Bushy Park 73
    Hedgefield 59
    Endeavour 54
    Selmans 51
    Apple Grove 50
    Bucks 47
    Caledonia 45
    Hopefield 39
    Rose Cottage 29
    Pleasant Vale 27
    Mount Fruitful 21
    Battery 20
    Chance Hall 20
    Glendale 20
    Chance Field 17
    White Farm 17
    Airy Cot 12
    Arise 10
    Early Rise 8
    Uphill 4
    Bridge Cottage 3

  34. John Avatar
    John

    Here is St. John, another agricultural parish.

    Kendal 751
    Colleton 537
    Newcastle 455
    Codrington College 438
    Bath 426
    Clifton Hall 415
    Hothersall 401
    Guinea 384
    Pool 365
    Henley 338
    Society 336
    Byde Mill 324
    Malvern 315
    Claybury 300
    Haynes Field 300
    Todds 275
    Cliff 236
    Bowmanston 232
    Lightfoot’s 203
    Ashford 198
    Quintynes 171
    Sealy Hall 153
    Haynes Hill 121
    Stewart’s Hill 120
    Venture 120
    Victoria 100
    Edge Cliff 94
    Risk 59
    Eastmont 44
    Providence 37
    Belle Farm 36
    Cliff Cottage 31
    Glenburnie 30
    Rose Gate 30
    Hope 29
    Carters 24
    Endeavour 16
    Sherbourne 11
    Cheshire 7

  35. John Avatar
    John

    … and St. George

    Drax Hall 879
    Constant 481
    Bulkeley’s 371
    Stepney 365
    Locust Hall 340
    Boarded Hall 313
    Brighton 311
    Ashbury 307
    Salters 294
    Mount 292
    Hanson 274
    Walkers 264
    Carmichael’s 257
    Windsor 250
    Jordan’s 247
    French’s 245
    Valley 243
    Buttals 219
    Cottage 216
    Farm 214
    Lemon Arbour 189
    Redland 188
    Golden Ridge 181
    Moonshine Hall 168
    Rowans 165
    Egerton 163
    Groves 160
    Woodland 147
    Hope 140
    Fair View 137
    Thorpe Cottage 134
    Ellesmere 120
    Greens 112
    Prerogative 107
    Newbury 93
    Endeavour 80
    Rose Hill 66
    New Market 50
    St. Helens 45
    Mayfield 44
    Union 40
    Prospect 35
    Belle Lair 33
    Bridgecot 31
    Weeke’s 29
    Airy Hill 28
    Moscow 27
    Supply 25
    White Cottage 22
    Hilbury 21
    Rural Cottage 18
    Market Hill 16
    Rose Mont 15
    Sweet Vale 14
    Salisbury 13
    Triumph 13
    Exchange 11
    Harmony Cottage 10
    First Step 7
    Redland Cottage 5
    Humble Village 3

  36. Are-we-there-yet Avatar
    Are-we-there-yet

    Bajans;

    I agree with you that the phrase you identified seems likely to be the one in the section that might suggest it could be used to bring any matter at all, no matter how spurious, into the net for investigation by the Commission. But, as a layman, it seemed to me that if that phrase were omitted the section would have essentially the same effect under normal circumstances and not appear to be so threatening. So why put it in? So I wondered if it was actually a boiler plate mix of legalese, probably found in numerous laws in Commonwealth countries, placed strategically to cover all bases and legally enable an investigator or Inspector or other similar functionary to follow leads as they become available while working on a case that fits firmly within the bailiwick of the relevant Commissioner or Authority. Of course there should be specific safeguards enacted if this were so to ensure that the constitutional rights of anyone trapped in such a situation were not trampled on..

    I suspect that there are numerous interpretations that might make that section seem less threatening as well as some that might make it seem even more threatening. I suspect we need the input of a real-real Lawyer. I wonder if our legal expert would deign to comment on the matter?

    But it seems to be just a draft, which must go through a rigorous process before it could be passed into law. Is PUDRYR jump starting the process? possibly. Is there reason to question the intentions of the new Government at this stage? Perhaps not, but it is also possible that PUDRYR has better intuition in such matters than either you or I.

    Thanks for engaging the other old man with little else to do but cavil with words and their meanings.

  37. Are-we-there-yet Avatar
    Are-we-there-yet

    John, re. your posts of Ca. 9:38 pm

    Impressive lists! but since they were of the 1865 plantations and large farms I was surprised that some of the names were still
    recognizable but most as residential areas today, not as large or even small farms. You asked “Which one’s can you identify as being in hands of large farmers and suitable for agriculture? Can you identify the large farmers?”

    I fear that I must fail the assignment. I could only attempt to do the assignment by using a cutoff acreage, say 400 acres, to separate the large plantations from the small ones. But that would give no proper indication of the actual sizes today in 2018 since amalgamations and change of use of significant portions of the old plantations since 1865 would make a mockery of any result I would get.

    Perhaps you could identify the ones that are asociated with Armag and the names of the principals of Armag and the owners of those plantations. I’m almost certain that they would qualify as large plantations.

    Yuh couldnt get uh list of the current sugar plantations and the sugar plantations that have filed for change of use. Those may be more interesting statistics re. food security.

  38. John Avatar
    John

    Let’s try CLICO first.

    Todds 275
    Lemon Arbour 189
    Henley 338
    Haynes Field 300
    Pool 365

    1467 Acres in all!!

    Wakefield today was Haynes Field in the 1850’s

  39. John Avatar
    John

    ARMAG will be Colleton and Hampton in St. Philip

    Colleton 537
    Hampton 348

    Total 885 Acres

  40. pieceuhderockyeahright Avatar
    pieceuhderockyeahright

    @ Are We There Yet

    Here is my concern.

    TEETH

    There are innumerable organisations out there which currently effect similar functions which can be tweaked to effect everything that this entity is doing without creating your own police force which can on a whim summons anyone and seize anything based on my friend the Commissioner of Integrity being issued a warrant.

    Why not empower the ever vigilant PAC or more specifically the Auditor General’s office to investigate the prolonged existing infelecities?

    No siree we ignoring them altogether and are forming a nex domain for we friends that answers only to and here is the beaver, the Minister of Finance. MIA CARES

    Why is it so glaringly obvious thst instead of giving teeth to currently IMPOTENT agencies you are creating new ones that can arrest people on a Willy nilly basis?

    Let me show you Willy nilly

    Read Section 11. 4(c)

    “…a person who refuses, without sufficient cause, to answer or to answer fully and satisfactorily to the best of his knowledge and belief, all questions put to him by or with the concurrence of the Commission; is guilty of an offence and is liable, on summary conviction, to a fine of $10 000
    or to imprisonment for 6 months or to both.

    You understand that you can get licked up if, YOU DID NOT ANSWER FULLY, NOR SATISFACTORILY, QUESTIONS POSED TO YOU BY MIA’S FRIEND THE INTEGRITY COMMISSIONER?

    You feeling me?

    So besides the fact that they mispelt memorandum on the very first line which eould suggest that an idiot, probably Dale or Kerrie drafted it, you are seeing the language of vindictiveness permeating this document AT ITS ONSET.

    DE OLE MAN GOING have to see ef a nex body can sit down and go through this document with a fine tooth comb and comment on the thousands of despot enabling moves that the document is replete with.

  41. John Avatar
    John

    Barbados Farms is Sagicor

    In St. George these plantations are as far as I remember

    Bulkeley’s 371
    Stepney 365
    Boarded Hall 313
    Brighton 311
    Carmichael’s 257
    Windsor 250
    Jordan’s 247
    Buttals 219

    2,333 Acres in all.

    Orange Hill, 355 acres in St. Peter is also Barbados Farms I believe.

    That makes 2,688 acres in all.

  42. John Avatar
    John

    Of those three, the Government would owe most to Barbados Farms.

    CLICO doesn’t produce anything, ARMAG has diversified away from sugar but Barbados Farms is still largely in sugar.

    Drive around and look and see if I am right or wrong.

  43. de pedantic Dribbler Avatar
    de pedantic Dribbler

    @Pieces, first up thanks for highlighting this draft bill but as you suggested why append this here …it is too important to be lost amidst other stuff!

    I am impressed with your conspiratorial focus on this one (on one or two occassions I think you go off the edge with the lurking bogeyman construct ) and the Third Reich comparison…that is a WTF type comparison.

    Now @Are-We, I believe @Bajans has a very valid point. Yes, this is another layman speaking but for all practical purposes no ‘police/regulatory ‘ body can simply decide to investigate someone unless there is something called probable cause…now of course that may be initiated by a citizen allegation, a noticeable concern or other reason but the wording of that clause gives the sense that merely the INTEREST of an investigating officer can initiate an investigation.

    That sir is the style of the regimes of the Putins of this world….NOT democratically ran nations which respond to rule of law!

    We shall see as this strangely scary draft doc is vetted. Mr Pieces makes a very impactful point: why the need for a new investigatory body anyhow? What matters are now so egregiously slippery that this new body has to be created.

  44. John Avatar
    John

    I got to take Brighton out of Barbados Farms.

    -311 so 2,322 acres

  45. John Avatar
    John

    Let’s assume we produce 20,000 tonnes of sugar a year, that is high, most recent years I seem to remember 12,000.

    It takes just under 10 tonnes of cane to produce a ton of sugar so we grow about 200,000 tonnes of cane.

    Yields vary between crops but I am going to assume 30 tonnes per acre..

    So we use about 6-7000 acres to produce the sugar we make.

    It could be 4,000 acres.

    Total acreage of Barbados …. 106,000 acres!!!

    1/3 -1/2 of the sugar output is attributable to Barbados Farms and Sagicor.

  46. John Avatar
    John

    To the more astute I will pose a question.

    What is the next question?

  47. Are-we-there-yet Avatar
    Are-we-there-yet

    PUDRYR re. your 12:40 am post;

    Brilliantly answered!

    I agree with your analysis totally and now fully understand the urgency of your ringing the figurative alarm bells on this one.

    dpD; I also agree with yours, to a large extent, but need to see the other side of the argument put by a real real lawyer as my past acquaintance with some, now relatively old, non consequential Laws as viewed from the metric of national importance, suggests that under those acts Inspectors had been given similar latitudes.

    Is the issue of corruption not a huge one almost universally recognized by the BU family? Should we not all recognize the importance of due process in consideration of the draft and ensuring that it does not contain the seeds of offshoots similar to the hyperbolic raising up of the Hitlerian Third Reich? Should we not also recognize the possibility that there might have been a strategic placement of the offending sections in this act to provide a machavellian excuse to have an integrity act sidelined once again? Shouldn’t there be some dispassionate look at all the aspects of the Act before we jump to conclude that it is a thin edge of the web to institute a Mugabe like regime but rather have it examined dispassionately to see if it is instead a ploy to brilliantly have it sidelined once again?

    Where are the BU legal advisors when we need them?

  48. pieceuhderockyeahright Avatar
    pieceuhderockyeahright

    @ Are We There Yet & De Ingrunt Word

    It is my hope that IF, DE OLE MAN ‘S article on The Despot Bill of 2018 gets posted that it is not deemed ” a tale told by an idiot …full of hot air and signifying nothing” heheheh but us being more vigilant having suffered through 10 years if fools

  49. Are-we-there-yet Avatar
    Are-we-there-yet

    John; Thanks! Very interesting data. I’ve been out of touch with the current developments re. land use for well over a decade. I accept fully your latest data that shows the current stark position. I suspect that the policy makers in Government and the Private Sector alike are perfectly aware of exactly where we stand and what has to be done for Barbados to forge a new path and bounce back into a stable position.

    Barrow’s land use aphorism has practically been realized. There is no going back. To me, the next question is how important is it to develop a a new forward looking, pragmatic land use and developmental policy that would realistically look at the current situation and assist all sectors of the land holding populace to contribute meaningfully and strategically to agreed developmental goals? In a nutshell, that is at the root of the question that David asks in this blog: “Is Agriculture and Food Security important?” I again think that they are of great importance culturally, if not economically and that the policy prescriptions that will define the extent of the involvement of the relevant sectors need to be worked out very carefully to ensure that every subsector is empowered to make its unique contribution and that no sector is left behind. But it is quite possible that, if this has not been worked out so far, now is the right time to do so and get it right for the optimal development of Barbados into the near future.

    As you have hinted, Barbados is no longer an Island of Plantations but that it is now a mix of just a few aggregations of plantations and dominant large producers of some staple foods and a relatively large number of small traditional agricultural enterprises. Do you have any data on the parameters that might define those small producers and their production? The most current census might provide such data even if not in the form desired for the kind of analysis I am thinking of.

    Another question of paramount importance is. Is there a shared vision of the Government and the private sector of what Barbados must look like in the next 5 or 10 years? Is the new rash of discussions between the Government and the Social Partnership emblematic of good strategic collaboration in the months and years to come?

    But the best question is where do we go from here? We could seek to get back on a path similar to that which the Cayman Islands took several years ago or one which Jamaica took around the same time. Which one should we take or should we forge an entirely new one? Your data has some implicit suggestions re. a desired route but it does not rule out other alternatives which might be of benefit to Barbados. The idea of concentrating on a blue economy is a very refreshing and indeed innovative one, and taking the green economy and tourism and the agricultural linkages thereto into full strategic consideration, might pay huge dividends. The Barbados of 2028 might well be a wonder of the World re. rate of development of a small economy.

  50. John Avatar
    John

    The question to be asked is …. why is Sagicor willing to make a loss in sugar?

    The next question becomes, what does it want in exchange?

    … and the answer is ….!!

Older Comments
1 … 3 4 5 6
Newer Comments

Leave a Reply to JohnCancel reply

Trending

Discover more from Barbados Underground

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading