The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

The decision to purchase $1 MILLION worth of lime trees from California because of the current high prices is absurd and another example of the government’s reckless spending of public funds when the country is drowning in debt.

What will the government do when VAT pushes food prices up – buy cows to produce milk?

Produce shortages come and go and while the current high prices are not welcome, there is no justification for spending $1 MILLION on 4,000-5,000 lime trees from abroad.

By the time these trees produce, the prices may well have dropped and the government will, no doubt, “cry baby sour lime”.

If Mr Christie believed in Bahamians, the government would contract local farmers to produce the plants.

The vision for self-sufficiency, if only in lime production, is admirable.

However, given the government’s disastrous attempts at agriculture (BARTAD and Hatchet Bay Plantation), it’s unlikely the country will be any closer to self-sufficiency with this latest spending spree than it was more than 30 years ago when the PLP’s election battle cry was “Self Sufficiency by 1980”.

Why not incorporate farming in every school as part of a community service programme, including the reform schools, and the prison, with properly qualified instructors, combining the study of agriculture science with wholesome recreation and providing a means to put some groceries on the table?

A backyard and community farming programme could be introduced in various communities and on wasted property razed by Urban Renewal. It worked in the old days. Why can’t it work today?

Of course, all this would require choosing a qualified programme co-ordinator on merit as opposed to cronyism, planning, accountability and giddy-up – all of which are sorely missing.

ATHENA DAMIANOS

Nassau,

May 1, 2014.