Batting for the agricultural sector

All Caribbean cricket fans by now accept that the West Indies cricket team is in dire straits, indeed Caribbean cricket as a whole is in such a hole. What is not so obvious to many of us is that it is not just cricket which is in trouble, a far more important aspect of our life and culture is in jeopardy. I refer here to the agricultural sector, the very lifeblood of Caribbean society. {{more}} After the initial disappointment of not finding gold in abundance in these islands, the early Europeans were quick to discover that our natural physical environment lent itself to producing “green gold” and starting with sugar, agriculture has been the bedrock of which Caribbean society was built.

The combination of plantation production for exports and subsistence small farming made for a combination which gave the region both a smug sense of Food Security as well as healthy returns from our export crops. Up until the 1980s the Caribbean was fairly well served in this sense. In 1988 for instance, just two decades ago, the region had an agricultural trade surplus of US $2.9 billion (CARICOM figures). The situation has radically changed since then.

The nineties and first few years of the 21st century have been characterized by an intensification of the process of trade liberalization. This has gone hand in hand with a deepening of globalization with modern communication technology being the spearhead of the penetration of foreign life-styles. Cultural imperialism is rampant. This two-pronged process, firstly making imports easier to access and cheaper, and secondly, changing our consumption patterns to mirror those of Europe and North America, has radically changed the agricultural trade scenario.

On the one hand, the “free trade” philosophy put into practice has eroded our preferential access to export markets. Major exports like sugar and rice have been badly affected, but none so like bananas for whereas in 1992 exports of the product from the Windwards were approaching EC $300 million, in 2006 they could not even amount to one-third of that amount. Meanwhile, on the other hand, the Caribbean’s food import bill skyrocketed over the period to an estimated $3 billion. Several factors influence this negative development- the growth of tourism, the reliance on imported food to feed the tourists, declining agricultural production as agricultural land is increasingly being used for everything but agriculture and our own love for imported food, including the fast food culture. So, from a surplus of $2.9 billion in 1988, the region now has a deficit of US $2 billion.

Aiding and abetting this decline has been regional policy and practice. Under the influence of short-sighted technocrats and foreign consultants most Caribbean government have lost any vision of future for agriculture. As a result investment in this sector has fallen steeply and is now less than 5 per cent of total investment in the region. We strive to invest or get investment in every other sector but agriculture. Yet the reality is that agricultural activities, according to the CARICOM Secretariat, still account for 25 per cent of total employment in the Caribbean.

The dangers are many and our vulnerability index is rising sharply. A region as naturally gifted as the Caribbean is relying on others to feed us. We eat more chicken back than fish (partly because we can’t afford the latter), more cornflakes than farine, more flour than cassava or sweet potato. In fact, if you ask any Caribbean child to pick out a potato, it would be more likely to be imported white potato than our own sweet variety. While all this is happening our poverty levels are still unacceptably high and while we have reduce undernourishment in the period 1992-2003, there were still almost 7 million undernourished persons in the Caribbean region in 2003, 21 per cent of the population. One positive factor though is that through persistent efforts from committed Caribbean patriots, including a couple Prime Ministers (our own being among them) CARICOM is at last awakening from its slumber. Last Saturday, it organized a Donors Conference at which it put forward a Regional Food Security Programme for possible funding. The disappointment is that only two of the prospective donors, the Government of Italy and the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization made any concrete commitments. Both of these already contribute to regional programmes in this area along with some 68 experts from Cuba and China. By contrast neither the Government of the United Kingdom or the United States of America, our much-vaunted “traditional” friends gave more than not even very encouraging words.

We have a huge task before us as a region and as a people. Building awareness of this situation is a critical first step. It is necessary if we are to pressure our governments to take agriculture seriously. Which Prime Minister has the Agriculture Portfolio? Which Agriculture Minister is seen as a “big weight” in any regional government? That is how serious we are. We cannot afford to flirt with this danger, to be dependent on outside sources for our food supply, to turn our fertile lands into shopping malls, golf courses and parking lots while fast food culture malnourishes and undernourishes us. Agriculture MUST BECOME A REGIONAL PRIORITY!