The Tribune

A Cabinet minister is aiming to implement a three-phased strategy to revive a Bahamian agriculture sector he says is at a crossroads.

Michael Pintard, minister of agriculture and marine resources, during his contribution to the 2019-2020 budget debate said his ministry will embark on an industry strengthening exercise featuring three distinct phases - institutional, operational and training.

He explained that the institutional phase is designed to align agriculture with ongoing efforts to develop the National Statistics System (NSS), an initiative led by the Department of Statistics.

The strategy for the development of agricultural statistics was presented at the National Strategy for the Development of Statistics (NSDS) workshop held in February 2019. Agriculture and marine resources have also participated in the economic and environmental sector specific committees, and the technical working committee, to ensure there is coordination with the NSDS.

The operational phase of Mr Pintard's plan aims to address the lack of current information on agriculture by deepening - and increasing - the collection and compilation of data and improving methodologies.

Efforts are being made to link farmer registration with data collection systems. This initiative is intended to result in a survey of key agricultural producers during July/August of this year to project crop production volumes for the upcoming season.

Running alongside the institutional and operational phases, there will be a training phase that aims to strengthen the capacities, abilities and professional skills of human resources in the production of agricultural statistics based on core statistical values.