The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

A Ministry of Agriculture consultant yesterday said the Bahamas was targeting between 20-100 per cent reductions on certain agricultural commodities, in a bid to boost foreign exchange earnings.

“Our target is 20 per cent in some commodities. In other commodities its 100 per cent,” said Godfrey Eneas,.

“The way you do it is you look at your imports, the volume that is being imported, and you convert it back to the number of acres that it would take you to satisfy that import.

“There are a number of crops where the acreage is extremely low, 60 acres, 50 acres, 40 acres, where we can satisfy domestic demands. We have never had a sustainable, forward-looking, technology-driven agricultural programme.”

Mr Eneas, a scheduled speaker at the upcoming Bahamas Business Outlook conference, said a 20-year plan for Bahamian agricultural has been developed; a plan he intends to discuss in greater detail on coming Monday.

“Over the years there has been a tremendous amount of lip service paid to the agricultural sector, but I think that we can no longer be depending on others to feed ourselves,” he added.

“The Bahamas and the rest of the Caribbean has become what is called a food deficit region, meaning that we import more food than we produce. One of the reasons for the huge import bill stems from the fact that our economies are driven by tourism, and tourism exacerbates imports.

“We feel, however, that there is tremendous opportunity for job creation as well as enterprise development in order to enhance our food security. We have developed a 20-year plan in the Ministry of Agriculture to address theses issues.”

Mr Eneas said much food consumed locally can be grown in the Bahamas. “With Baha Mar coming on stream at the end of the year, they’re expected to attract almost a half a million more people and that means more food,” he added.

“Much of the food that we eat we can grow locally. That’s job creation, and by creating or expanding our output we can save foreign exchange. We are always concerned about the balance of foreign exchange in our country in order to be able to continue imports, and we have been depending on tourism as the main source of earnings, but agriculture can be a sustainable avenue to earn foreign exchange.”

Mr Eneas said: “The other factor is that some people may not be cognisant of is that we have a serious hunger problem in this country, because food is unaffordable to large segments of people in our country.

“In conjunction with that, we have a burgeoning health issue with non-communicable diseases because of the food that we eat. We eat poorly. Food is an issue. We are in essence eating ourself sick.”