The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

THE Government was yesterday urged to create a sustainable development plan for the Bahamian agricultural sector, after stating its planned agriculture school could “dent” the Bahamas’ $500-$600 million food import bill by 15 per cent.

Bahamas Agricultural Producers Association (BAPA) chief, Dr Keith Campbell, told Tribune Business that the Government needed to examine why so many farmers were “catching hell” and had left the industry.

During his 2013-2014 Budget communication, Prime Minister Perry Christie said the Government would invest just over $4 million next year to establish  the new School of Agriculture and Marine Sciences in North Andros.

The school, which will be built on the site of the old agricultural research facility, will include a tutorial commercial farm and is projected to be fully self-sustaining within five years.

“As an adjunct of the College of The Bahamas, it will offer diploma and certification programmes, as well as skills training, and its curriculum will combine both academic and practical components. It is estimated that initiatives sparked by the school could potentially place a 15 per cent dent in our total food imports,” said Mr Christie.

Dr Campbell said that for the Institute to be effective, it had to be part of the overall plan for the sustainable development of the Bahamian agricultural sector.

“In terms of the impact, I’m wondering how it relates to the plans for the sustainable development for the sector,” he added.

“For that school to be effective it has to be an element of the plan. You can’t just throw that out there as if it is the salvation of the sector, as if to suggest that people were being constrained because they hadn’t been educated or been to an agricultural school. We have people who have been to agricultural school but are now employed in fields other than agriculture, so that is not the major constraint,” said Dr Campbell.

“We have to put it in context. There are other issues that are more pressing in terms of addressing the producers, the challenges in the agricultural sector right now,  and why  people are catching hell and dropping out.  We haven’t addressed the reasons why no one has been getting into agriculture and people have gotten out.”