The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas needs to invest "at least $100m" to boost food security and make "a serious 40 percent" dent in its import bill, an agriculture entrepreneur is arguing.

Caron Shephard, president of the newly-formed Bahamas Agro Entrepreneurs Group, told Tribune Business in a recent interview that while the $9m allocated to food security in the 2020-2021 budget was "a big jump from where we were" much more investment is required to develop a sustainable agriculture sector in this nation.

"Based on the numbers I have been looking at, to put a serious dent in the import bill we have, you're looking at at least $100m to be able to comfortably make an indent," she said. "That would be a 40 percent indent."

Taking Irish potatoes as an example, Ms Shephard said statistics from 2016-2017 showed that The Bahamas imported that year some 4,610 pounds of the vegetable for a collective worth of $8.867m. If Bahamian farmers were able to snatch a 40 percent market share, they would produce 1.844m pounds valued at $3.54m with those earnings remaining within The Bahamas.

Suggesting that The Bahamas needed to make inroads into other vegetable crops such as lettuce, onions, cucumbers and celery, as well as livestock such as pigs, goats and poultry, she added: "If you go down the list of produce, you're coming in within $100m to put a serious dent in that $800m import bill coming into this country.

"Like the government said, they're limited on resources. Nine million dollars is a big jump from where they were, and hopefully it will be injected into the farmers existing now and help where they need to go. This is a sleeping giant not tapped into as yet, and the reason we've not tapped into it is because we're so dependent on imports. It's been easier to import rather than put people to work.

"Because of COVID-19, people are more aware of the importance of food security.... We have an opportunity to create a whole new industry with added value, with manufacturing, processing and packaging. Once we have that we can start exports. We definitely need some serious capital to get agriculture going."

The government, though, has barely increased the size of the Ministry of Agriculture and Marine Resources' budget allocation, raising it from $26.068m to $26.252m, despite including a new $6m "line item" for "food security".

A further $3m has been added to this effort on the capital side of the budget, but the subsidies provided to the Bahamas Agriculture and Marine Science Institute (BAMSI) and Bahamas Agricultural and Industrial Corporation (BAIC) have been cut by a combined $2.45m.

The size of the $9m allocation has already come under fire, with Anthony Ferguson, CFAL's principal, saying on a recent webinar that this shows it "can't be serious" about improving The Bahamas' food security.

"You can always tell from a budget how serious governments really are, and they are not serious. It is very, very clear," Mr Ferguson said. "Poultry imports are about $80m a year. Fresh fruits, etc, is a couple of hundred million, yet the increase in the budget for agriculture and fisheries was a little over $500,000.

"They just can't be serious. So until we are prepared to get serious, I think we will continue to find ourselves putting our heads in the sand and finding that the economy is going to continue to grow slower, slower, slower with the increasing deficits."

Ms Shephard, meanwhile, urged the government to direct funding to experienced farmers who were already in business and knew what it took to succeed, voicing concern that Michael Pintard, minister of agriculture and marine resources, had suggested he wanted to direct monies to younger people.

Acknowledging that the Bahamian agriculture industry is "barely surviving, but can thrive", she added: "While $9m is projected, I would definitely live to see that properly distributed among the serious farmers in the industry. We have a number of persons who want to jump on board that are not tested and tried. They need to look at the tried and tested farmers in the industry.

"Many come on board with grandiose ideas and do not appreciate what real farming is about. I understand the minister saying he wants to invest in younger persons, but they are not tried and tested. This is not a business you want to get into as a hobby. This is a serious business.

"The minister says he wants to deal with younger people, but we have a cadre of experienced farmers that have been through the process and know what it takes to get crops to market. We hope he would consider farmers in the industry."