The Tribune

By MORGAN ADDERLEY

Tribune Staff Reporter

madderley@tribunemedia.net

AGRICULTURE and Marine Resources Minister Michael Pintard will be hosting a closed town meeting in North Andros today to assist BARC residents with securing “varied size crown grants” for the land they occupy.

Mr Pintard told Parliament last week the government had made the decision to assist some 16 families connected to the original occupants of the land, commonly known as the Bahamas Agriculture Research Community (BARC).

“My proposal to Cabinet was simply that we allocate five acres of land... for the dwellings that are on the property,” he told The Tribune. “And so there are two categories of land: one is the 5 acre fee simple title to be allocated and the first right of refusal to lease the difference between the original allocation and now — so in other words, to lease the 35 or to lease the 75 acres, if they have a clear plan of action with means of execution,” he continued.

“The second category would be persons who on the surface of it, have not been doing agriculture but are descendants of those families, have had a dwelling on the property, have been living in the dwelling, to at a minimum, allocate one acre to them, fee simple title, free and clear crown grant.

Mr Pintard said: “And to for a one year period ask them to show commitment to developing the other four acres for agriculture purposes, at which time that lease arrangement on the four acres could be converted into a crown lease and they too will have a right to lease the additional property - whether it’s 35 or 75 or some variation of that…to put under cultivation.”

At an earlier town meeting, Mr Pintard said the “vast majority” of residents indicated they wanted fee simple title to land, although he said he got the “distinct impression” that most people accepted the land was not being used for agriculture purposes.

The matter stems back to the 1970s, when USAID expressed interest in working with the Bahamian government.

“So there was an initiative between ‘73-‘78 where they were looking to assist the government of the Bahamas in developing agriculture as a significant part of its economy,” Mr Pintard said.

“It was a joint effort between the US and Bahamian government with assistance from universities. It was conceived that they would set up agriculture plots and encourage families to occupy those plots.

“So what you would essentially have was about 16 families who would reside on the property and also develop this acreage allocated to them for agricultural purposes. There were two categories of acreage—one was 40 acres, another was 80 acres.”

Mr Pintard noted this was crown land, and while 2,000 acres were originally allocated for this purpose - ultimately only 1,500 acres were used.

“That 2,000 acres at the end of the program would have been turned over to the government, resources would have been made available for a number of things including trying to build a community around this agriculture experiment.

“At the end of 21 years for those persons who occupied the land continuously and farmed it, they could have received a crown title to the property.”