Govt touts cotton revival with new plan

Barbados is set to breathe new life into one of its oldest cash crops, West Indian Sea Island Cotton, with a new plan agreed upon by government and private stakeholders, Minister of Agriculture Indar Weir said Friday. The plan will see harvesting start between February and March.

But Weir insisted that the private sector must take the reins in managing the project, insisting that taxpayers and the government should not bear the burden of the revamped industry.

Weir told Barbados TODAY: “The entity that really is responsible for cotton – the Caribbean sea island cotton – I met with them, and we worked out a cotton plan, where they will first start with 50 acres of cotton, which they have done; and then, what I want to do is get them up another 50, possibly a hundred acres and to meet with them next week.

“But cotton cannot be driven by the government. I find that people misunderstand the culture in Barbados. The government is here to facilitate these things. There is a lot of money to be made from cotton. But I have to get the people who actually run the ginnery, people who are involved in the cotton industry, to take responsibility for actually managing the project,

while we give them the support, even if it’s financial support and technical support.”

He added: “That is the conversation we are having. When we transitioned BAMC [Barbados Agricultural Management Company] into private ownership, obviously the land that the BAMC would have taken responsibility to put into cotton, the private owners did not go into cotton with; they wanted to focus on sugar, and having more sugarcane. So, now my task is to make sure we ramp up the production [of cotton], working with the partners or stakeholders who are currently involved.”

Weir pointed out that the land has already been identified.

But he stressed that he now has to bring the stakeholders to the table and get them to take ownership of the industry while the government provides the support.

The minister declared: “I am very disappointed with the way in which the cotton is being handled; that is why I am taking a deliberate intervention into what is happening; and I will seek to rebuild the entire cotton industry. It has to have ownership. I am not putting cotton as a burden on the taxpayers, not as a burden on the government. We will support it just like how we support other areas in agriculture.”

Turning his attention to the challenges facing the industry, he said that private estates are no longer planting cotton because it is a challenge for them to manage. Finding people to harvest the crop is another problem, he added.
Barbados’ unique geographical position, climate and soil make the island the ideal location for growing West Indian Sea Island Cotton — known by the biological name, gossypium barbadense.

The variety is rated as the highest grade, due mainly to the fibre’s length, strength and silkiness.

This cotton is mostly exported and transformed into exquisite apparel that is luxurious to the touch and highly durable.
Cotton has been grown in Barbados since the early colonial period when Barbadian planters inherited the crop from the indigenous Arawaks. By the 1650s, Barbados had become the first island in the British West Indies to export cotton to Europe.

Cotton was a major commercial crop in the region before sugardominated cultivation. emmaueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb