The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A Cabinet minister yesterday asserted that agricultural-related legislation accompanying the 2023-2024 Budget was being “misinterpreted” amid charges that it is threatening to “take bread out of farmers’ mouths”.

Clay Sweeting, minister of agriculture, marine resources and Family Islands, told Tribune Business the Agricultural Sales and Services Bill needed to be read in context alongside all other legislation and regulations pertaining to the sector as he pledged that the Government has no intention of competing directly with Bahamian farmers.

The minister spoke out after Caron Shepherd, the Bahamas Agro Entrepreneurs Group’s president, disclosed to this newspaper that she raced to the House of Assembly on Monday in a last-ditch effort - but unsuccessful effort - to persuade Mr Sweeting and Prime Minister Philip Davis KC not to move ahead with the Bill in its current form.

The Bill’s “objects and reasons” section states: “The Agricultural Sales and Services Bill 2023 seeks to empower the Department of Agriculture to charge fees for the sale of plants and animals, and the provision of certain agricultural services to the general public.”

Besides stipulating that the Department of Agriculture “may” offer seedlings and various animals for sale to the general public at various prices, as well as services such as “bush hogging”, “fence post hole drilling” and “ridging”, the legislation also empowers the responsible minister to change the crops, livestock and other products offered by Order.

Among the animals that the Department “may” supply are pigs, boars, cattle and sheep. Ms Shepherd, who said she and other farmers/livestock owners only found out about the Bill and its contents on Monday - the day it was passed by the House of Assembly - asserted that the legislation was effectively opening up livestock and crop farming to any “Joe Blow” able to purchase from the Department of Agriculture.

She argued that this threatens to undermine all licensed and registered farmers, with the Department of Agriculture seemingly competing directly against the sector. However, Mr Sweeting denied this was the case, explaining that the Bills is intended to bring “structure” and regulate aspects of the Department of Agriculture’s operations that he argued have been ignored by previous administrations.

Confirming that he spoke to Ms Shepherd at the House of Assembly, and tried unsuccessfully to allay her concerns, the minister said the Bill did not make it mandatory for the Department of Agriculture to sell crops, livestock and services to the general public. “It’s just the minister ‘may’. It’s not the minister ‘shall’,” he told Tribune Business. “It’s just an option.

“This just brings some structure to that part of the regulations. All of what we have there is to provide assistance to the farmers. It’s never our intent to compete with the farmers. It’s to bring some structure and regulation to part of the Department of Agriculture that has been neglected for some time. We’ve done a lot of work, which has been neglected by successive administrations, where we’re just trying to bring structure to the Department of Agriculture.”

Mr Sweeting reiterated that the Bill was seeking to clean up or “tie up some loose ends”, and that he had tried to explain this to Ms Shepherd. Asserting that it covers “just one piece of the regulations”, he added that it will not undermine licensed and registered farmers, or their rights, as they will still be the only ones permitted to access particular investment incentives or import equipment duty-free.

The minister said the 2023-2024 Budget provides $1m in grant funding assistance for Bahamian farmers, while his ministry and agencies have imported key equipment and built out crop sets. Mr Sweeting says this builds on the $1.7m in grant funding provided this fiscal year, plus the 260 sheep and goats that have been imported for distribution to farmers once their quarantine period is ended.

“I’ve done all I can to help bring relief to farmers,” he told this newspaper. “I think it’s just a misinterpretation, and not taking into account all of the other regulations and legislation that governs the agriculture sector.” Ms Shepherd, though, yesterday said she will not relent in calling for the removal of the term “general public” from the Bill and its replacement by the word “farmers”.

“I was so upset that I walked down to the House of Assembly to talk to the minister and Prime Minister about this,” she told Tribune Business. “They cannot open this to the general public. This cannot be. It has to have some protection that’s specifically for farmers in an industry that’s supposed to be reserved for Bahamians.

“I spoke to them, and they were adamant they were going to do this. For whatever reason they’ve made up their minds that’s what they want to do. It’s so disappointing that they’re taking bread out of the farmers’ mouths. Once they open the gates to sell to the general public like that, and not build the sector, they’re opening it up for any Joe Blow to walk in and buy animals and plants from them.

“The minister indicated they’re just doing it so they could regulate it, and by regulating it you have to price it. Now they’re going to open up the floodgates where anybody could buy from the Ministry of Agriculture, and that’s not right. According to the minister, he was saying they want to regulate it so they can sell it to the farmers. I said that if that’s the case, take out ‘general public’ and change it to ‘farmers’.”

Ms Shepherd said there had been no consultation over the Bill with farmers and livestock owners prior to it being brought to the House of Assembly. “Nobody knew anything about it because it was not in the minister’s Budget speech,” she added. “It’s one of those curve balls thrown at the last minute. That’s why I was surprised.”

The Bahamas Agro Entrepreneurs Group president questioned whether farmers will now have to pay to obtain livestock from the Department of Agriculture, when current policy was that they could obtain one male and two female sheep, goats or pigs, especially as the Government now seemed to be trying to cover the costs and expenses associated with importing animals.

“My thing about it is that the Government is now getting into the business of agriculture. They should not be doing that,” she argued. “They should be putting policies in place to support the farmers. This is the same thing they’re doing with BAMSI. BAMSI is now in competition with farmers because they are producing acres of vegetables, bringing them in from Andros and saturating the market, selling at a reduced price and undercutting the farmers.

“The money they are spending here, there and everywhere should be invested with the farmers who have the farms, and who are already farming, to increase their productivity and livestock so that they are able to produce in greater abundance than what they have now. They’re supposed to be assisting the farmers in making a better way of life, not making it more difficult.”