Something has to give

15.AUG.08

Editor: Never a dull moment with this ever-increasing-cost of fuel. It has now extended its tentacles beyond gasoline and diesel to the shortage of flour and rice. Yet for all of that, Vincentians continue to fork out what we don’t have to purchase agricultural products and produce which for the most part are available in abundance.{{more}}

It certainly cannot be lack of knowledge that is hindering us. It has to be that we have not yet broadened our vision to see agriculture as our most viable and sustainable, economically commercial prospect. We continue to feed big-time on this colonial indoctrination about too small and can’t compete. So we produce back breaking crops for export whilst we feed on imported fruits and vegetables that require little or no physical energy.

In St. Vincent and the Grenadines, fruits of one kind or another are available twelve months in the year. At the moment, our once lucrative banana industry is not only weltering under stain, it is also depleting the physical and mental energy of the officials.

The call goes out to WIBDECO and WINFA and all of the stakeholders in agriculture to concentrate some of those energies and try to capitalise on what we presently have. Specifically in fruits and vegetables, we just simply cannot justify that such a large portion of our fruits continue to fall on the ground and spoil, thus creating the ideal environment for flies and mosquitoes to breed.

The response depends urgently on sourcing required portable machinery that can be taken to specific locations to do the extractions. Equally, too, machinery for crushing wet and dry materials, grains and peppers. It is not anticipated that WINFA and WIBDECO should be involved in blending these extracts, but simply to produce bulk material, leaving the rest to hoteliers, restaurants, guest houses, caterers, supermarkets for ice cream making, popsicles and wine making etc. All of the above is easier said than done. Now it’s not only cost we need to think about, but the manpower as well.

The present construction activities in the country create another challenge. I strongly believe that the prisoners should be used. In fact, we do have a large number of young men behind bars. To compliment all that has just been suggested, agriculture should be used as an apprenticeship education, with pay.

The jobs should be supervised by trained agriculturalists to include pruning of all the trees and planting, especially cherries and plumrose. The latter, not only for the fruit, but equally for the petals to make sparkling wines.

One cannot overly emphasize that there is an urgent need in this country for a commercial vision big time in fruit. So far I have deliberately not mentioned dehydrating (drying) without electricity (sun dried).

Stanley M. Quammie