The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas must invest more in proven farmers who have shown the necessary “fortitude and perseverance” rather than directing all resources to newcomers, an entrepreneur is warning,

Caron Shepherd, president of the newly-formed Bahamas Agro Entrepreneurs Group, told Tribune Business that the Government needs to take “a holistic perspective” by investing in those “working the ground now” if this nation is to start making serious inroads into slashing its annual $1bn food import bill.

With the price of many food staples set to soar due to rising global inflation, as well as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, she asserted that The Bahamas is receiving another “wake-up call” about the importance of being able to grow more of its own produce.

Suggesting that the Davis administration needs to focus on injecting the $100m investment she has long advocated for, Ms Shepherd said the current focus on small-scale grants to new farming entrants and entrepreneurs will not have sufficient impact.

“This is what we’ve been harping on for the last two years,” she added of food security concerns generated by COVID-19 and now the Russia-Ukraine conflict. “But I don’t feel they [the Government] want to really invest in the farmers, let me put it that way.

“They think they need to create this big BAMSI do-to-do rather than invest in farmers on the ground doing the work....The thing is if we can get to the point where we have a significant injection into agriculture we’ll be able to get over at least one hurdle and be able to produce some opportunities for ourselves and be able to do what we need to do.”

Reiterating her belief that Bahamian agriculture needs a $100m investment to truly kickstart its import substitution potential, Ms Shepherd said: “We’re still at that juncture. We’re not having a significant impact.”

She added that $3m funnelled to new agriculture entrepreneurs, via grants and other forms of financing by the Small Business Development Centre (SBDC), was “a drop in the bucket” compared to what was needed to make a meaningful dent in the food import bill.

Ms Shepherd, saying she was aware of grants ranging from $5,000 to $50,000, added: “If someone received $50,000 that will only assist them in jump-starting things in their first season, which they are in now.....

“Trust me. We definitely need to get very, very serious. We have a number of new persons coming into the sector, and persons that have funding that are working on smaller projects. Working on smaller projects is good, but we need to look at it from a holistic perspective where we invest in farmers working the ground now.

“New farmers have little experience, have no record, so nine times out of ten you find out down the road if they are able to sustain themselves and have the fortitude to continue if they get knocked down,” Ms Shepherd said.

“We have farmers who have been out there for the last 30-40 years, when the rains and storms came, and stuck it out. We have persons who see how important agriculture is, but have not weathered the storm and not weathered the time to stick it out.

“We need to invest in people who have had the fortitude and perseverance to stick it out, and not invest in those starting out. Put it in the hands of farmers who are actually farming.”

Ms Shepherd said the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and its impact on the two key wheat-producing countries, again reinforces the importance of food security for The Bahamas given that the conflict will only further worsen inflation.

Russia, too, is a key fertilizer supplier, and she added that the conflict was also likely to produce increases in the prices of key agriculture inputs such as seeds via a “ripple effect” that will be felt throughout the world.

“Bread is going to go up, which means cereals are going to go up and seeds are going to go up,” Ms Shepherd said. “We may not see the impact for another 90 days or so. We’re already in the growing season. The next season for growing starts in July. Any increase is significant, and we’re very concerned.”

She added that rising farm input costs will “slow the process down” when it comes to the agriculture sector’s efforts to reduce The Bahamas’ food import bill.