The Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement negotiations, which Mexico is to join in December, are threatening to eliminate the last defences of the country’s agricultural sector.

Farmers in the United States, one of the future partners in the treaty, have asked their government to negotiate flexibilisation of the phytosanitary measures applied by Mexico, which are the final barrier against free entrance of agricultural products that compete against local crops.

“Mexico is about to enter unfamiliar negotiations,” Timothy Wise, director of the Research and Policy Programme at the Global Development and Environment Institute at Tufts University near Boston, Massachusetts, told IPS. “I think the diagnosis is unfavourable for this country. The purpose of this treaty is to defend Washington’s agenda.”

“It is only seeking further trade liberalisation,” the expert said.

The Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement went into effect in 2006 with four original members: Brunei, Chile, New Zealand and Singapore. In 2007, negotiations got under way for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a significantly expanded version of the treaty. In 2008, Australia, Peru, the United States and Vietnam joined the negotiations, and Malaysia joined in 2010.

In June 2012 Canada and Mexico became part of the negotiations. Japan has also expressed an interest, but is only an observer, and has not yet formally entered the negotiations.

There have been 14 rounds of talks on the TPP, the latest in the United States in September. The next round will be held in December in New Zealand, which Mexico will join. This step is anxiously awaited by the U.S. agricultural sector, which looks forward to a total opening of the Mexican market.

Mexico’s agricultural trade became wide open to Canada and the U.S. when the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) entered into force in 1994. However, there were some important exceptions to unrestricted entry of goods, and some non-tariff barriers were established, such as phytosanitary measures.

Mexico’s average tariff for agricultural products from outside NAFTA is 21.5 percent. But imports of coffee and poultry products are completely banned, and different products are excluded from other trade agreements with countries or blocs.

Potatoes are an especially protected crop; Mexico only allows entry of potato products from the U.S. and Canada to designated border areas. This crop was left out of the agreement because of the lack of competitiveness in production between the three countries.

At first Mexico applied a tariff of 272 percent on potato imports from the United States, until 2002, when the tax was replaced by phytosanitary barriers to control plant diseases, like nematodes.

In March 2002, Mexico City and Washington signed a market access agreement that is still in effect, allowing imports of fresh U.S. potatoes to a 26-km wide border zone in Baja California, Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila and Tamaulipas, the five states on the border with the United States.

U.S. producers exported 39 million dollars worth of potatoes to Mexico last year.

Potato farmers are accusing the government of using them as a bargaining chip for acceptance in the TPP. Under U.S. pressure, Mexico might allow potato imports throughout the country in return for joining the negotiations in New Zealand.

“No one has consulted us, unlike in negotiations for other treaties,” Cecilia Ríos, general manager of the National Confederation of Potato Producers (CONPAPA), told IPS. “Ever since 2008, the United States has been pressing for total access. But as they did not comply with phytosanitary protocols, they were not allowed in.”

CONPAPA, founded in 2002, brings together producers, sellers, researchers and government delegates.

Complete opening of the market would put at risk the livelihoods of 8,700 potato farmers and a crop worth 900 million dollars covering 55,000 hectares, CONPAPA says. In addition, potato diseases could spread to other crops like tomatoes, eggplants, tobacco and peppers.

In contrast to what happened in Mexico, the government of President Barack Obama did hold public consultations on the TPP in the United States.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) announced Mexico’s plans for incorporation to the agreement on Dec. 7, 2011. Interested parties had until Sept. 4 to comment, and 17 days later a hearing was held in Washington, D.C. The U.S. National Potato Council was one of the respondents.

“Many of the obstacles raised by Mexico to justify their failure to honour commitments in the 2003 agreement have been phytosanitary in nature, are not based on sound science, and do not justify trade restrictions,” said John Keeling, the Potato Council’s executive vice president, in a letter to the USTR dated Aug. 17.

“A lack of progress on the potato issue would call into question Mexico’s commitment to be a responsible partner in the TPP agreement,” Keeling said.

Other agricultural sectors have also made demands. For instance, the Northwest Horticultural Council (NHC) has asked for phytosanitary permission to export fresh peaches and apricots under a protocol system, without the need for Mexican inspectors to oversee the programme.

NHC members argue that the protocol they propose to control the oriental fruit moth (Grapholita molesta) is used for peaches exported to Mexico and peaches and apricots sent to Canada, according to an Aug. 28 letter to the USTR signed by Mark Powers, the NHC vice president.

“Oriental fruit moth has never been detected in stone fruit shipments to Canada, or in apricots to Mexico,” he said.

Mexico’s agricultural exports were worth 7.82 billion dollars between January and August, while imports were 7.74 billion dollars over the same period, according to the Mexican central bank.

“The United Status may be concerned about losing something, but all Mexico can do is lose. With another strategy, Mexico could open up spaces for government policies, but that is not going to happen,” said Wise, who has studied the situation in the Mexican countryside for years.

“This is a non-negotiable issue, it is about more than trade. We are going to lobby Congress to explain the problems and the situation,” said Ríos.

The food health and safety service attached to the Agriculture Ministry has records of over 1,000 shipments of U.S. potatoes refused entry because they were contaminated with quarantine pests – organisms capable of causing economic or environmental harm – that have not been previously detected in Mexico.

CONPAPA has sponsored a study on the impact of the potato trade in the border zone, and will publish its results in the coming weeks.

The NHC has requested that the USTR and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service “work with the Mexican government to make the regulatory change” that will allow fruit access.

Over the past two years, millet production has reached record levels in Dya, a rural community in the Kaolack region of central Senegal, where the Agricultural Value Chains Support Project (PAFA) is supporting two farmers’ collectives.

PAFA is a six-year initiative launched in 2010 in four regions of Senegal’s groundnut growing basin: Diourbel, Fatick, Kaffrine and Kaolack. It’s a joint project of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries’ Fund for International Development and the Senegalese government.

The project provides financing and technical training to farmer collectives producing millet, sesame, sorghum, black-eyed beans, vegetables and poultry.

Millet production has reached record levels in Dya, in central Senegal. Credit: Tonrulkens/CC BY-SA 2.0

“The 7,650 producers who have been trained in this region are women, young heads of households, people with disabilities, small producers unable to guarantee their own food security – in short, the most economically vulnerable. They’ve been chosen by a committee headed by the governor of their region,” PAFA coordinator Sémou Diouf told IPS.

In Dya, 200 people have been selected and organised into two cooperatives, which between them grow millet on 400 hectares.

The producers each make a contribution of between 44 and 64 dollars to the collective, which entitles them to 200 kilos of fertiliser and various items of agricultural equipment. Each group is supported by two technical advisors trained in crop monitoring.

“In 2011, we sold 30 tonnes of millet at 190 CFA francs (38 cents U.S.) a kilo – earning a total of 11,400 dollars,” said Ibrahima Ndiaye, the treasurer for the Manko cooperative, which groups growers from five villages.

“In 2011, we expected to harvest 800 kilos per hectare. We found ourselves with an average yield of 1.2 tonnes per hectare. We have never harvested so much millet,” Ndiaye told IPS. “This year, our estimate of one tonne per hectare has also been exceeded. So we’ve signed an agreement with a distributor, to sell him 60 tonnes of millet when the crop comes in.”

Harvesting this year’s millet will begin at any moment, and Aïssatou Ndiaye, from the Bock Mbotay collective, says Dya has achieved self-sufficiency in food. “Despite planting my seedlings late in 2011, I had a record harvest. In fact, my family is still eating last year’s grain,” he told IPS.

The treasurer of the Bock Mbotay group, Cheikh Ndiaye, said the group’s combined output was expected to rise from 160 tonnes in 2011 to 200 tonnes this year, because this year’s seedlings are better.

“Just two years ago, we were facing hardship, because the harvests were insufficient,” he noted. This year, the collective has a contract to supply 60 tonnes of millet to a distributor.

Omar Guèye, a member of the Manko collective, is also happy. “Our yields have never been so good. It’s thanks to this project,” he commented to IPS.

But, he added, “There’ve been some problems with training because the trainers have been hard to get hold of and the fertiliser was sent to us a bit late.”

Besides helping with production and marketing, PAFA is also helping producers set up grain stores for millet, which is the staple food in this part of Senegal.

“This is a project which is contributing to food security and raising income for the most vulnerable people in rural areas. We’re seeing excellent results. At Dya, the beneficiaries have not only achieved food security, they’re selling a healthy surplus,” said Samba Gaye, PAFA’s liaison at the National Agency for Rural and Agricultural Advice.

Gaye told IPS that a total of 2,020 hectares of millet and 600 hectares of sesame were planted by project beneficiaries in Kaolack and Kaffrine, with production of millet amounting to 1,880 tonnes, and the sesame harvest coming to 250 tonnes.

“We have high hopes for 2012, because the season has gone well and the fields look great,” he said.

Madieng Seck, an agriculture journalist, believes this project can allow farmers to “fly with their own wings”.

“The best thing this project can do for producers is to ensure they get good technical training so that they can sustain themselves,” Seck, director of the private monthly journal Agri-Infos, told IPS.

Ndiaye admits that it will not be easy to manage on their own, but sounds a confident note. “We have truly learned a lot from the project’s trainers, and we are ready to take over when PAFA ends.”

WASHINGTON, October 11, 2012 (IPS) – At least 20 countries are currently at either “alarming” or “extremely alarming” levels of hunger, according to new research released here on Thursday.

World hunger has diminished somewhat since 1990 but remains a significant problem in many regions, according to the new Global Hunger Index released by the International Food Policy Research Institute(IFPRI), based here in Washington. IFPRI is a centre that seeks sustainable solutions for ending hunger and poverty.

“Hunger has declined and we have made progress, but it remains serious,” Claudia Ringler, co-author of the report, told journalists Thursday.

The index is the seventh in a series presenting a multifaceted measure of global, regional and national hunger levels. The index weighs three indicators equally: undernourishment, levels of underweight children, and child mortality.

According to IFPRI, “The report shows that progress in reducing the proportion of hungry people in the world has been tragically slow.”

Haiti, Burundi and Eritrea top the index with “extremely alarming” levels of hunger. Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia continue to be the regions suffering from the highest hunger levels.

The Democratic Republic of Congo is not listed as “extremely alarming”, in contrast to previous years, but only because there was insufficient data available to calculate the country’s score on the index.

Seventeen other countries are listed as having “alarming” hunger levels. India was included in this list with the same hunger level from which the country suffered in 1996.

This year, the report placed particular focus on the unsustainable uses of land, water and energy as drivers of food insecurity. “Hunger is inextricably linked to growing pressure on land, water, and energy resources,” the report stated.

The researchers highlighted reasons for natural resource scarcity, including changes in rural and urban demographics, higher incomes and unsustainable resource consumption, as well as poor policies in conjunction with weak institutions.

Ringler also emphasised natural resource dependency. “The poor rely almost exclusively on natural resources for their well-being,” she said. “Therefore they have been particularly harmed by changes in the climate and the scarcity that creates.”

Such dependency makes it even more necessary to ensure good and sustainable practices with resources such as land, water and energy.

“The stark reality is that the world needs to produce more food with fewer resources, while eliminating wasteful practices and policies,” IFPRI stated.

To tackle this reality, the Global Hunger Index report laid out several policy recommendations on how to use land, water and energy to build sustainable food security. One of the recommendations was to secure local land and water rights.

These rights are at risk because in recent years, higher food and oil prices and the scarcity of farmland have increased the number of international agricultural land deals, particularly in regions where land is relatively inexpensive, such as Sub-Saharan Africa. One result of these deals is greater food insecurity.

Concern Worldwide and Welthungerhilfe, both humanitarian groups that co-sponsored the Global Health Index report, have partnered with farmers in Sierra Leone and Tanzania to try to keep agricultural land in the hands of local farmers.

“Large-scale foreign investments in land should be closely monitored,” Welthungerhilfe President Bärbel Dieckmann said Thursday. “Local organisations are needed to secure transparency and the participation of smallholder farmers whose livelihoods are impacted by land deals.”

Tanzania has proven to be a successful and important case study to which other countries can potentially look as a model.

“In Tanzania, one million people are food insecure, most of whom are farmers. Yet only 10 percent of Tanzanian farmers hold an official title to their land,” Tom Arnold, Concern’s CEO, told journalists.

Concern has been working with the Tanzanian government to provide a new land title, a certificate stating the Right to Occupancy, to over 10,000 farmers. This gives farmers the opportunity to write down the names of their family members who while continue to care for the land when they die.

If farmers have legal rights to their lands, supporters suggest, they will be more likely to invest in and improve the land, in order to see a larger crop produced year after year. On the other hand, if land is not legally owned by a farmer, researchers point to data that suggests it is often sold by the government to external investors.

“Agricultural production must increase substantially to meet the demands of a growing and increasingly wealthy population,” Arnold continued. “Yet to avoid more stress on land, water, and energy resources, and to ensure that all have access to adequate food, that production must be sustainable and must prioritise the poor.”

The report also recommended that governments phase out inefficient subsidies on water, energy and fertilisers.

“Subsidies are a short-term solution that don’t reach the entire population and can cost governments far more than their budgets can sustain,” Ringler explained, citing Malawi as an example.

Other recommendations included scaling up technical solutions, creating a macroeconomic environment that promotes efficient use of national resources, and taming the drivers of national resource scarcity.

“Food security under land, water, and energy stress poses daunting challenges,” the index stated. “But this report shows how we can meet these challenges  in a sustainable and affordable way.”

“The palm tree is a means of survival,” said Tahya Mint Mohamed, a 44-year-old Mauritanian farmer and mother of three children. “We eat its dates; we make mats, beds and chairs from palms; the leaves are also used to make baskets and to feed our livestock.”

Mint Mohamed is the regional president of the associations for participatory management of oases in the Two Hodhs region of southwestern Mauritania (hodh means “basin” in Arabic) – an unusual position for a woman to hold in a traditionally male-dominated activity.

She was delighted to take IPS on a tour of her palm plantation, which is alive with activity during the date harvesting period between June and August.

“The plantation is my most precious investment. I maintain it carefully and water it with the help of my shadoof (a traditional irrigation system using a bucket and counterweight to draw water from a well),” she told IPS.

Her output depends heavily on rainfall and successfully fighting off the attentions of locusts, birds and animals, but she estimates her harvest this year will come in somewhere between 500 and 1,000 kilos of dates.

Mauritania has over 10,000 productive hectares of date palms, taking into account mature, productive palms as well as young trees that have not yet begun to bear fruit, and male palms – essential for pollination – according to Mohamed Ould Ahmed Banane, who oversees monitoring and evaluation for the Oases Sustainable Development Programme (PDDO).

Banane said nearly 20,000 people across the country depend on dates for their livelihood in five oasis regions: Adrar in the north, Tagant in the Centre, and Assaba and the two Hodhs in the southeast.

He estimates Mauritania’s annual production of dates at 60,000 tonnes, to which is added a small amount of imports – 1,000 tonnes from Algeria and 500 tonnes from Tunisia. Around 60 percent of dates are eaten between June and August, during the Guetna (the Arabic name for the season when dates are harvested). The rest is dried for consumption throughout the year.

Nutritionist Mohamed Baro said dates are rich in micronutrients like iron and calcium and are an excellent source of energy.

Hademine Ould Saleck, the imam of Nouakchott’s main mosque, said that there is a baraka (a blessing in Arabic) in dates, explaining that it is often the first thing eaten to break the fast during Ramadan, especially in date-producing countries.

But Mauritania’s oases have been badly affected by drought, suffering from siltation, a lack of water and declining soil fertility, said Banane.

“In Adrar, date production was clearly lower this year because of climatic threats, such as poor rainfall, dust and wind, which held back the harvest,” said Sid’Ahmed Ould Hmoymed, the mayor of Atar, the principal town of the Adrar region.

Mohamed Ould Haj, an experienced farmer, provided a gloomy summary of the situation in the region. “This year, we had nothing at all: no dates, no wheat, no barley, no vegetables and no watermelons because of the drought.”

But Cheikh Ould Moustapha, regional coordinator for PDDO in Adrar, told IPS that while it has been a challenging year, Ould Haj’s income from all sources will come to between 2,500 and 3,000 dollars.

Besides the drought, tourist activity in all of the country’s oases zones has been frozen since the 2007 murder of six French tourists in the country by the Islamist group Al Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb.

The government established PDDO in 2002 to preserve the fragile but valuable oasis ecosystems and stem a rural exodus that had begun gathering pace. The International Fund for Agricultural Development contributed around 37 million dollars, according to Alioun Demba, head of international cooperation at the Ministry for Rural Development.

“The programme has focused on organising farmers around the oases to support the emergence of a civil society that can sustain oasis participatory management associations (AGPOs) and make collective investments,” Banane told IPS.

The project calls for AGPOs to manage projects financed by PDDO and a contribution from the farmers themselves. Local smallholders elect association officials, set their own priorities, and control any income. Several AGPOs have already received grants from PDDO for amounts ranging from 46,000 to 92,000 dollars.

To demonstrate sustainable land management techniques, PDDO has also created small field schools (measuring just 10 by 10 metres) and a plantation with fruit trees and vegetables interspersed with the date palms.

“This creates three levels of protection against soil erosion and allows good conservation, efficient irrigation, and a diversification of sources of income for the farmers,” said Banane.

In the Adrar region, where nearly half of the country’s palm plantations are found, smallholders have proved reluctant to apply modern techniques, said Cheikh Ould Moustapha, regional coordinator for PDDO.

The recommendations call for well-spaced plantations, pollination, drip or tube irrigation and the use of organic fertiliser. In Adrar, the wealthier farmers use solar-powered pumps to draw water for both these systems of irrigation.

In terms of marketing, PDDO has helped to set up a group in Adrar to work together to make transporting dates to the capital, Nouakchott, more profitable, Moustapha told IPS.

The date palm and the camel – the two pillars of their economy – are well adapted to the climate of the Sahara and the Sahel and remain important assets, Moustapha stressed.

A couple looks at their backyard garden in the Cassada Gardens community in St. John's, Antigua. Credit: Desmond Brown/IPS

By Desmond Brown
ST. JOHN'S, Antigua, Jun 18 2012 (IPS)

As a boy, Hilson Baptiste remembers going to his neighbour’s home and giving them a large slice of pumpkin grown in his family’s backyard garden. In return, he would be given two fish for his family.

But Baptiste, who is currently Antigua’s minister of agriculture, regrets that in his country, those days are over. He is now part of an initiative to prevent the island from spending millions of dollars on importing food that could easily be grown, in some cases, in the backyards of many homes.

In 2010, the twin-island nation imported approximately 16 million pounds of vegetables, according to figures from the Antigua and Barbuda government. Baptiste said serious measures must be taken to drastically reduce that figure.

“I want to see that happen. You would not have to buy anything from the supermarket; you can grow your own and share with your neighbours,” he said. He related his boyhood story of exchanging pumpkin for fish, noting, “We build better communities when we do this.”

Even the island’s ceremonial head of state, Dame Louise Lake-Tack, is supporting the initiative. The representative of Queen Elizabeth in Antigua and Barbuda, she has no problem getting her hands dirty as she seeks to boost food production in the country.

To ensure that the 80,000 inhabitants of this small two-island state understand the need to drastically reduce the millions of dollars spent on importing food, Lake-Tack assisted the government by distributing seedlings to homeowners, a move authorities hope will address the issue of food security here.

Known as the National Backyard Gardening Programme, the ministry of agriculture-led initiative is aiming at getting the population to produce four million pounds of food annually in their own backyards.

“We encourage people to grow all types of vegetables and even fruits,” Owolabi Elabanjo, an agriculture extension officer, told IPS.

“We’ve seen a rise in (the) production of tomato, sweet pepper, okra, lettuce and seasoning like rosemary and thyme. We are also now introducing vegetables that (are not) common in many homes.”

Family farming

The programme initially began with the help of the Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in 2008 and now, approximately 2,500 families are registered.

FAO’s sub-regional coordinator for the Caribbean, Florita Kentish, said the FAO is a firm believer in activities to alleviate the effects of rising food prices and global economic hardship, and to ensure that even the most vulnerable have good nutrition.

“Home gardening has a long established tradition of offering great potential to improve household food security and alleviate micronutrient deficiencies in many ways,” Kentish said. The FAO and the World Health Organisation are jointly involved in the initiative to improve nutrition.

Home gardening can help achieve such goals by offering direct access to a diversity of foods rich in nutrients. It also helps people save money by spending less on food and earn extra income by selling garden produce, ultimately increasing their purchasing power. During seasonally lean periods, home gardens can serve as an additional source of food.

The initiative is especially important in rural areas where income-earning opportunities are fewer, Kentish said, adding that it is becoming increasingly important for vulnerable households, including those headed by females.

The government is taking steps to better support the initiative, which has been extended to some of the nation’s schools, Baptiste said.

“We are zoning Antigua off into three or four zones to focus on each zone once per month to ensure that we assist you to better supply yourself and your family with all the vegetables you need,” he told those registered under the programme.

In the month of May alone the ministry distributed more than 15,000 seedlings – among them tomatoes, butternut squash, zucchini, peppers and an assortment of fruit trees – to families.

Environmental challenges

But despite such drive and commitment to the programme, Elabanjo said Antigua and Barbuda was at a disadvantage in terms of agricultural production, especially when climate change is factored into an already precarious environment.

Even before climate change became an issue, Antigua and Barbuda lacked an adequate water supply, Elabanjo told IPS. “All of the other islands can use free water (from streams and rivers) for production of food but an average farmer in Antigua has to pay for water.” Higher temperatures brought by climate change have exacerbated the problem.

Elabanjo, a Nigerian farmer who moved to Antigua 20 years ago, explained that during the summer, an entire month can pass without any rainfall.

“Antigua is one of the few islands where we don’t have good rainfall. The conditions are semi-arid, so we have one of the lowest rainfalls in all of the Caribbean islands and above all, we don’t have a single river in Antigua,” he said.

“But when you go to St. Vincent, Dominica, St. Lucia…everybody has an abundance of water,” which is critical for agriculture, he pointed out. He praised the nation’s farmers for managing to grow produce despite the environmental constraints.

The Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from Jun. 1 to Nov. 30, also affects production levels.

“Right now, as the hurricane season is here, you will see some farmers reducing their production because they are not sure if a hurricane will come and destroy their crops,” Elabanjo said.

Without insurance, farmers have no protection, he added. “Rather than losing money they tend to cut back, and by cutting back they affect supply.”

Finance Minister Harold Lovell welcomed the initiative, noting that several years ago, society had turned its back on agriculture. But the resultant importation of foods and vegetables came at a high cost to the country.

“Even if we do not produce everything that we eat, we should produce substantially what we eat, and we should also eat what we produce,” Lovell said.

In Antigua and other Caribbean countries with a strong tradition of agriculture, most impoverished people buy their food. In Antigua’s case, Elabanjo said, the majority of it is imported.

“Our environment is not conducive (to) the production of certain crops so most of the produce you see in the market or the supermarket is imported from neighbouring islands of Dominica or St. Vincent,” he said.

But if the backyard gardening initiative – which boasts a range of participants, from the impoverished to those who are working professionals – works, the future might soon look different for Antigua and Barbuda.

Mere weeks ago Arthur Smith, who has been farming here for more than 20 years, was dangling thousands of carrots in front of local consumers, but there were no buyers to be had.

Smith said he had 40,000 pounds of carrots in his fields to be sold, yet supermarkets were not buying from local farmers, something he said had to stop.

“You plant for market supply but right now rather than me being able to supply the market, it is being supplied by overseas growers,” a frustrated Smith said.

“If we believe that we are living in difficult financial times and we need to do something to assist to cut down on importation to save foreign exchange, this is what I’m doing – saving foreign exchange,” he added.

A farmer uses a hand-held sprinkler to water corn in Barbados. Credit: Desmond Brown/IPS

But Smith’s was not the lone pleading voice and now it seems the farmers are about to get what they’ve been asking for.

The highest agriculture official here, David Estwisk, has announced that the agriculture industry is being restructured in a bid to reduce a whopping 700 million dollar import bill.

The restructuring involves implementing a programme of local food production, which he said would aim to cushion the impact of imported food inflation due to the increase in global food prices.

“We in the Ministry of Agriculture…see the need for a complete restructuring and repositioning of the agriculture sector so that the sector can become one of the pillars of economic development in Barbados,” Estwick announced at a press conference here Wednesday.

“We see our role as providing the enabling policy environment, and facilitating the kinds of public and private sector investment needed to overcome the constraints facing the sector so that available opportunities can be exploited.”

“It is our desire to reorient the agriculture sector such that it is focused on the production of food to improve our food security, as well as the nutrition and health of the Barbados population and to save foreign exchange,” he added.

The agriculture minister said officials in his ministry would shortly begin “a complete restructuring and repositioning” of local agriculture, including a national consultation next Wednesday and a related comprehensive White Paper on Agriculture to be available by early July.

A long relationship with agriculture

Agricultural production was the primary occupation of early settlers to Barbados, not just for local consumption, but also for export to England and for trade with other colonial territories.

The first European settlers arrived here in 1627 and found much of the island covered with forests. By 1700, however, most of this forest was cut down and replaced with agricultural crops.

As a result, much of the landscape was transformed from natural ecosystems into agricultural ecosystems comprised of large mono-specific plantations such as sugarcane, small-scale vegetables, root crops and pastures with livestock.

The area being used for agriculture in Barbados has declined over the past two decades in comparison to the earlier part of this century, primarily through the demand for land for settlements and tourism development, such as for hotels and golf courses.

Three challenges

The demand for land for settlements is one of three major challenges identified by political scientist Peter Wichkam which he said the government would face in its new thrust. The other two are labour and praedial larceny, or the stealing of livestock or agricultural produce from a farm.

“We have a scarcity of land in Barbados because we want to build houses, and basically farmers find it more practical to allow their pastures to go fallow and basically claim it is not agriculture land,” Wickham told IPS. “They can get it subdivided and sold as house spots and they make a lot more money that way.”

As far as the labour is concerned, he noted that Barbados, like Antigua, does not have an ample supply of locals who want to go into the fields and work plantations. Yet he said islanders are opposed to having labour come in large quantities from neighbouring countries.

And thirdly, “it’s a Caribbean reality that people always feel that agricultural produce is there for them to take. Farms in Barbados are seldom of the size where you can get economies of scale,” he explained. “So they find that it is expensive to have the necessary security, and if you don’t have it, then then crops disappear.”

“The regional argument is that there is no model, but the reason there is no model is that you can’t have one that addresses those three issues.”

Chelston Brathwaite, chairman of the National Agriculture Commission, said there was a present need to rethink, refocus and reposition efforts and use land to satisfy consumer needs.

“We have to be careful not to use all our land for real estate. We have to reserve some for food,” he said.

Estwick said the concept of a White Paper being prepared is based on the premise that the sector needs to be modernised to the extent that it explores the linkages to other parts of the economy and fulfills its role in contributing to economic development.

“The White Paper will assist us in our endeavours to effect the repositioning of the agriculture sector,” he said.

Policy areas to be developed by the White Paper include land use, praedial larceny, food and nutrition security, food imports, investment in the sector, promotion of inter sector linkages between the food and agriculture sector and others sectors such as tourism, manufacturing and energy.

Other areas would be capacity building and the development of human resources, the development of a sugar cane industry, incentives and technical and financial support to the sector, and the role of other national, regional and international agencies in support of the sector.