The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A Bahamian Cabinet minister yesterday called for the Caribbean to create a region-wide Agricultural Development Fund, otherwise it would remain “a food deficit” area.

V Alfred Gray, addressing the Caribbean agriculture ministers’ meeting with the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation’s (FAO) head, suggested that the region follow the European Union’s (EU) lead to try and break its dependency on food imports.

Mr Gray said it should become “mandatory for each member state” to contribute to a common Agricultural Development Fund, warning: “If we do not do this, we will not, in the foreseeable future, rise above being a food deficit region.”

Calling for contributions to be based on each country’s ability to pay, he added: “The Fund should be used to lift the technical skills of the human resources which are engaged in agriculture, such as the small farmers and those engaged in cottage industries, many of whom are women and small food processors.

“The organisational structure of such a fund should comprise representatives of commodity groups such as the Caribbean Poultry Association (CPA), the Caribbean Network of Rural Women Production (CANROP) and the Caribbean Farmers Network (CaFAN) who should play leading roles, in this paradigm shift as we seek to advance regional agriculture and move from regional food dependency to regional self-sufficiency.”

The Christie administration has sought to make inroads into this nation’s annual $1 billion food import bill since taking office, with Mr Gray pegging the region’s total dependence at $5-$6 billion.

He added that Caribbean nations had “succumbed” to suggestions it move away from food self-sufficiency to depend on cheap, mainly US, imports.

Noting that this had contributed to the leakage of foreign currency earnings from tourism, Mr Gray suggested the Agricultural Development Fund ideal be proposed to regional leaders at this week’s CARICOM Heads of Government meeting.

However, with the Bahamas regarded as one of the region’s wealthier nations, linking Fund contributions to ability to pay could lead to this country paying disproportionately and more than its fair share.

And, with other countries more heavily invested in agriculture, there is a danger the Bahamas could end up subsidising its Caribbean counterparts.

Nevertheless, Mr Gray said yesterday: “We in CARICOM, need to consider the following questions:: Why should we in the Bahamas import rice from Thailand when Haiti and Guyana have the capacity to supply us with all the rice we need?

“Why should Trinidad and Tobago buy its mutton and goat meat from New Zealand, when we in the Bahamas and Barbados can supply them with all the fresh lamb, mutton and goat meat they need?

“Why should we depend on the US to supply all of the corn required for our livestock industries when Belize has demonstrated that it has the capacity to grow and supply corn at global level quantity and at reasonable prices?”

Mr Gray added that Caribbean nations “had allowed our agricultural sectors to decline from the lack of sufficient human and financial investments.

“We embarked on a programme to import our food, thus placing our countries in a strangle hold of food deficit positions.”