The farmer – The missing factor

Our southern sister tri-island state of Grenada, Carriacou and Petit Martinique is this week hosting activities in celebration of Caribbean Week of Agriculture. This is an annual event rotated from one country to another and bringing together the whole gamut of players in the agricultural industry in the region. It is organized to coincide with the observance of World Food Day and focuses both on achievements in the sector as well as a critical examination of existing and anticipated problems with a view towards elaborating appropriate strategies for tackling them.{{more}}

In recent years, recognition of World Food Day has been growing on a regional level as well as internationally, with agencies such as the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations in the forefront. This is a most positive development for it provides an opportunity to examine the range of issues surrounding foodproduction, consumption, trade, distribution etc-as well as to connect these with such issues as health, nutrition and poverty. The tragedy lies in the failure to maintain this momentum after all the hype.

Statistics would reveal that performance does not match the hype. After all the back-slapping, revelations of grand strategies and plans; food and agriculture, the world over, are still in a troubled state. In country after country, despite all the advances in economic development and technology, hunger and malnutrition remain with us. In Latin America and the Caribbean alone, it is estimated that there are more than 9 million children under the age of five, suffering from malnutrition, while more than 22 million pre-schoolers, 33 million women of child-bearing age and millions of pregnant women suffer from anaemia.

In spite of all the talk, it is clear that the Caribbean has not embraced agriculture and food production with the seriousness that is required. Our shortfalls in export performance can be blamed in large measure on unfavourable external trade factors, but we have no such excuses where feeding our own populace is concerned. Additionally, while we have pinned our development strategy on tourism, we have been unable to make the link between entertaining millions of visitors and using this as an opportunity for spurring the development of the indigenous agricultural sector.

As a result, even as our own traditional exports fall, we also are experiencing declines in local food production and a consequent rise in the importation of food. The more sophisticated we grow in our tastes, the more we seem to rely on external sources to satisfy those desires. Even as we pay lip-service to the recognition of these problems, we seem to lack the collective will to tackle them. Much is said but not enough done. Words are not matched by deeds, and the grand showcases we put on so splendidly from time to time, soon fade into the reality of everyday neglect or at best, complacency.

Many, many initiatives have been launched over the years. There is certainly no shortage of regional Plans, Strategies and Initiatives for agricultural development. But we in the Caribbean seem to suffer from the absence of a second leg, that which is needed for implementation. The approaches, fashioned by an army of agricultural planners, consultants, experts (foreign and regional), are clearly well-meaning, but we fall short in the implementation phase. The lack of political will and the resultant failure to provide adequate resources contribute to this shortcoming; but there is another, critical contributing factor.

In my opinion, this is the failure, even downright refusal in some quarters, to make the farmer central to the sustainability and advance of the agricultural sector. Plans for the development of the sector are drawn up, emphasizing the need for utilization of technology, proper planning, marketing etc. What continues to be lacking is a concrete plan for developing the human resource base of the sector – the farmer. As a result, the complaints about farmers not making use of the range of modern tools available, while undoubtedly true, are rooted in this underdevelopment and our failure to make significant inroads in it.

In seeking to address this problem, it is important to encourage and support the development of farmer organizations at all levels, from the community level right up to a regional level, to allow farmers to develop the self-confidence so necessary if they are to confront the problems of the modern-day world. Farmers and their organizations must not be treated are mere recipients of ideas and programmes, they must have a central role in elaborating and implementing them, must not only be involved, but must feel involved and committed. It is a strategy that for all sorts of reasons, we seem reluctant to embrace, yet our entire experience has demonstrated, that no matter how brilliantly conceived, the best of plans are doomed to failure without the central figure-the farmer. How long will we take to grasp this lesson?

Renwick Rose is a community activist and social commentator.