The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Exuma’s Chamber of Commerce president fears the island’s farming progress could be washed “down the drain” if Irma scores a direct hit on the island.

Pedro Rolle told Tribune Business that Exuma had enjoyed its best year for agriculture since he returned to the island six years ago, with farmers enjoying bumper crops and growing new vegetables.

He warned, though, that Exuma’s young could quickly desert farming again if Irma’s wind and rain washed away seeds and crops already planted.

“If we were to get the peripheral stuff like with Matthew last year, we will not be impacted,” Mr Rolle said. “But if this thing comes into our vicinity, it will be devastating.

“You’d have to write a cheque to us [from Nassau] to underwrite our economy. It’s a serious thing.”

Turning to the island’s fledgling agriculture revival, Mr Rolle added: “This has probably been our most productive year in terms of farming - certainly in all the time I’ve been back in Exuma for the last six years - with the farmers starting to do certain things.

“If we have any amount of rain or wind, that goes down the drain. Water melons and tomatoes were grown, and lots of peppers and corn. We’ve had more of everything this year than we’ve ever had before, and they added things that they didn’t grow a lot.”

Mr Rolle said spinach and cucumber, in particular, were grown for on-island consumption “and went down very well”.

Underlining the importance of Exuma’s agriculture revival, he told Tribune Business: “Over time what happened is that farming was kind of abandoned as the elderly got older, and young people were not motivated to farm as they could not see how they were going to make a living.

“When next year comes, are they going to say: ‘To hell with it’ and get a job in a hotel if Irma wipes out their crops. Does that mean the headway we’ve made with farming goes down the drain?”

Mr Rolle said that in the absence of mortgages, credit cards and other financial products, previous generations of Exumians had little choice but to farm and live in a communal way.

He added that Exuma residents were taking Irma seriously, as shown by the fact that there were just two patrons sitting in the same restaurant with him.

This, Mr Rolle suggested, was evidence that the island’s population were at the grocery and hardware stores, and busy securing their properties and boats.

“It’s kind of scary when you take a look at the strength of that storm,” he said. “If it comes, at the very least we’re going to be hit with some wind and rain, so we need to be prepared for that.”

Mr Rolle added that Exuma’s tight-knit nature provided a strong defence against the kind of ‘price gouging’ concerning the Government.

“I think the risk of it happening here is much less,” he told Tribune Business. “People tend to know what the price of something is; they won’t settle for doubling.