Agriculture and Farming are in a tail spin

Editor: “In recent years, the production sector of St Vincent and the Grenadines has been vulnerable to the effects of climate change, tropical storms, droughts and the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine war and most recently a volcanic eruption.”

The above quote is part of the reason given by the Administration for borrowing US$10 million funding from the World Bank to implement the UBEC-CERC Food Insecurity Project – any project that is based on wrong theses, invariably fail.

Performance in the productive sector has been on the decline for quite some time. The only recent occurrence among those cited above, is the Russia-Ukraine war; but how a war between two sets of people way up north, affect us? We’ve never received grain (rice) from Ukraine and neither do we receive oil or gas from Russia; neither directly nor tangentially.

As for the others, from ever since, St. Vincent and the Grenadines has had rainy season and dry seasons. Once every seven or eight years, a severe dry season is experienced and there are the oft heavy rains which causes severe floods and landslides. Two landslides of great memory were one in the Marriaqua Valley and the other in the back of Spring Village. Very often there were small landslides causing roadblocks.

In my lifetime, we have had hurricane Janet, Flora, Evelyn and Thomas. There is nothing recent about those. The most recent was Bret.

With respect to volcanic eruptions, there have been about three in the last 50 years or thereabout. The production sector has been vulnerable to the policies of the Government.

Some time ago, after one of the severe storms, banana crops were severely damaged, it was ruled by the Administration that no public officer would be receiving public assistance for his / her damaged crop of banana. That was a bad decision indeed.

During my early days in the banana business, first as an officer in the Department of Agriculture, then a fulltime farmer; public officers were foremost in keeping this country up with their participation in farming. They greatly assisted in the dissemination of proper agricultural practices; but since they could not double-dip, many suffered monetarily. Unfortunate and many of them withdrew from working lands.

Then, a senior Government Minister stated that “farming is a thing of the past”. None of his colleagues admonished him. Policies were subsequently put in place to make it very difficult for those of us wishing to stay in it.

To further emphasize the objective of the Government officer, another Minister publicly stated that “no one with CXC subjects should be working in lands”. So, we now have the police force employing many more people than needed in a normal society and many security firms having many persons working in private stores. Those that choose not to be employed, are provided with ‘income support’ / ‘poor relief’, enough to enjoy their alcohol.

To enforce the difficulties, many of the roads in the farming community remain a perpetual state of disrepair. Apparently, the Argyle Airport is still in the construction stage.

However, in more recent times, there seems to be a change of Government’s policy with respect to farming. Much fertilizers are being asked of foreign governments. Both the Prime Minister and the Minister of Agriculture have been on the campaign to draw Vincentians to farming. NPK and vegetable seeds have been distributed free of cost. Some farmers have been assisted with the cultivation of specific crops and Extension Officers have been assigned to the Dasheen Project.

Now IICA, CARDI and other agencies are being asked to assist. This World Bank Project – is the latest. It is unknown who conceptualized it but one farmer in the recent consultation asked whether or not farmers should be consulted before proceeding. I know in one developed country, the UK, there are public officers whose job is to think and develop projects. These projects are subject to critical analysis before reaching the decision-makers.

Some time ago, I wrote in the newspapers that for us in St Vincent, the policy-makers think-up projects, design projects and if possible, execute projects. Very often, such projects fail and fail miserably.

Failed projects that come to mind are: The Cocoa Project, The Marijuana Project, The Richmond Vale Quarry Project.

There is every indication that this World Bank Project is well on its way.

Long, long ago, there was the Coconut Water Bottling Project, the Farine Project, the Poultry Project, the Butternut Squash Project and the Dasheen Packaging Project – is VincyFresh still functioning? All have come to an ignoble end.

The last one, is the Special Dasheen Project. For this one, farmers are provided with slips, their lands are being developed, the crops are being attended to, fertilizers are being provided, extension officers are being assigned to see the crops through. Maybe when the crop is ready for harvesting, labour will also be provided.

Agriculture / farming is really in a tail-spin.

Hugh Stewart