Farmers fret on tree planting project

Government’s ambitious plans for a nationwide tree planting exercise have appeared to raise the ire of  livestock farmers.

Some farmers complained that the National Tree Planting project is taking up valuable pasture for their animals.

The use of a huge tract grassland at Hope Plantation, St Lucy for the tree planting exercise sparked opposition among farmers who declined to identify themselves in interviews with Barbados TODAY.

One farmer complained: “With Government saying they want to increase the Black Belly [sheep] population.

“To remove 20 plus acres of grasslands is counterproductive.

“This will hurt the livestock industry at all levels. The most disturbing thing is the land was in production.”

The farmer argued that the land at the state-owned Hope Plantation, the home of the Government’s pioneering Hope Dairy Farm from the 1960s, was currently being used by livestock farmers, who now are forced to find alternative grazing grounds.

The farmers have urged Government to spare lands in agricultural production from the project.

The farmer said: “An exercise like this should have used marginal lands and cleared some overgrown areas so one sector should not suffer at the hands of the other.

“Seeing what took place, I didn’t see any participation of St Lucy residents or any notification.”

Last Saturday, members of the Barbados Youth Advance Corp, Barbados 4 H Club as well as representatives from the Barbados Fire Service and Barbados Defence Force planted more than 2,000 trees at Hope Plantation.

Barbados TODAY made several attempts to reach Minister of Agriculture Indar Weir but was unsuccessful.

When contacted, CEO of the Barbados Agricultural Society (BAS), James Paul, told Barbados TODAY that his organization is aware of the livestock farmers’ concerns.

Paul said: “Farmers have been coming to me with concerns about where Government is going to plant all of these trees.

“Even the number that they are talking, which is a million to two million trees, we have to ask ourselves how they are going to accomplish this when some of this land is farmland. It may be grassland, but it is still farmland and we have to ask ourselves if this number of trees is really realistic in the context of the Barbadian land space.

“From the way I see it, they are compromising the ability of farmers to use the land to plant on or use it for grass for their animals.

“We need to know how much more grasslands have been identified for this project because it makes no sense that one would use agricultural land to do it.”

He argued that Government may be better off seeking to implement management systems for the country’s green spaces, rather than trying to plant trees on a large scale.

“We may not even need to plant at this scale to manage environmental concerns but rather better manage the forested areas that we have,” he said.

Last year, Prime Minister Mia Mottley launched the initiative to plant a million trees in time for Barbados’ We Gatherin’ 2020 celebrations.

She touted that the initiative as part of Government’s plan to build environmental sustainability and resilience.
colvillemounsey@barbadostoday.bb