Growing our food

We constantly complain about the high cost of food items, and while justifiable, it is a direct result of the importation of most of our foodstuff and we have no control of prices on the international market. In addition, our palates have become accustomed to highpriced luxury items.

In 2006, when a leading parliamentarian and decision maker was asked about increasing our food production, his response was “we have oil and gas, we have money and we can buy all the food we need.” I was ashamed of this thoughtless and uninformed opinion and within a year there was a significant increase in the prices of grain and milk on the world market due to a decline in production caused by severe drought in major producing countries. Wheat production during 2006 and 2007 was four percent lower than in 2004 and 2005.

Between 2006 and 2008, average world prices for wheat rose by 136 percent, rice by 217 percent, corn by 125 percent and soybeans by 107 percent. In late April 2008, the price of rice, one of our major imports, hit US24 cents a pound, doubling in price in just seven months.

In order to prevent price increases, world food production must always outpace population growth, which is 1.2 percent annually.

The world population is estimated at 7.5 billion today, and to be 8.4 billion in the mid-2030s and 9.6 billion in mid-2050s.

The challenge is to keep pace with the food requirements for this increasing population. And the effects of climate change on agricultural production is still unknown.

When I say we must grow what we eat I refer to quality ground provisions, plantains, green vegetables, fruit, chicken, ducks, sheep, goat and pigs. Sheep farmers should be growing quality black-bellied and West African strains of sheep. Why are the excellent strains of corn developed by the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI) not being extensively grown? There is a demand for quality yams, eg “cush-cush”, breadfruit, citrus fruit, melons such as honeydew and cantaloupes. Honey is always in demand and fetches a good price. Why then are we considering the importation of honey? And where are our herds of buffalypso? Surely there are graduates in agriculture from the University of the West Indies and the University of Trinidad and Tobago who wish to become farmers.

Why are there no incentives to attract these graduates to farming? Why are our graduates wasting their knowledge sitting behind desks and becoming pen-pushers when they should be producing food? I am pleased that consideration is being given to utilising the Community-based Environmental Protection and Enhancement Programme’s workers in food production.

A 2010 CARDI study concluded that praedial larceny is the single most discouraging aspect of agriculture and is a threat to a livelihood in farming and fishing.

Therefore more must be done to eradicate the theft of livestock and agricultural produce. And, hopefully, the resuscitation of the Police Marine Branch will significantly reduce the incidents of theft of pirogues, outboard engines, and piracy.

Our beloved pigeon peas are being imported from Peru and Ecuador; pork, chicken and eggs from the US; ground provisions from Grenada and St Vincent; bananas from Santo Domingo, and dried sorrel from Jamaica. Why are we not self-sufficient in these items? Maybe our decision makers are still of the opinion that we have money and can buy food. We will continue to c o m p l a i n about our high food import bill if we do not produce more of what we eat and eat more of what we produce.