One regional agriculture specialist is advising Government to make it mandatory for tourism operators here to use a certain amount of local agriculture produce in their operations.
This suggestion has come from sub-regional Director of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Dr Lystra Fletcher-Paul, who said Barbados’ food import bill was simply too high.
Addressing a lunchtime lecture put on by the Rural Development Commission (RDC) at the Queens Park steel shed on Friday on the topic Grow What You Eat/Invest in Food Security, Fletcher-Paul said it was the responsibility of households, government and the private sector, to ensure the country’s food supply is secure and of high quality, while driving down the near half a billion dollar food import bill.
“In our hotels local foods should be served because tourists come to our shores for the local experience,” said Fletcher-Paul.
“There should be incentives to the private sector investors to purchase and serve food that is grown locally. In the same way that government gives tax shelters to hotel chains, they should also include a clause which states that a certain percentage of the food that is served should be grown locally. This could be implemented through establishing contracts through local farmers’ groups.
“To me, if a hotel is coming into your country and looking to invest in the country, I see nothing wrong with the government saying ‘as part of the whole package, as good cooperate citizens, could you then include a section that says that a certain percentage of the food you serve in your hotel should come from local farmers, and establish contracts with those local farmers,’” she explained.
She said this means, however, that an enabling environment would have to be put in place to allow for smooth flow of supplies to meet demand, and systems to allow for timely payment.
Adding that careful planning of the production would also be necessary, the agriculture official said farmers would have to produce consistently high quality and quantity always.
“So, it also means that the farmers’ associations have to be well organized,” she said, adding that there would have to be an agreement in relation to which farmers would produce what quantity of each product for the tourism sector.
“We seem to assume that when tourists come to our shore they want to eat the same things they are eating in their own homes. A lot of them want the local experience. So, provide them with the local experience by growing what we eat and let them eat what we grow,” Fletcher-Paul said.
She also singled out government as one of the biggest culprits when it came to using imported items as opposed to locally produced ones at its various functions, adding that she hopes government was serving locally produced items in “prison, hospitals and schools”.
She urged parents to also encourage their children to get involved in helping to grow what they consume, while insisting that government’s role was mainly to provide an enabling environment to encourage investment, while facilitating food and nutrition security and access to healthy and affordable food.
Meanwhile, Chief Executive Officer of the Barbados Agriculture Society (BAS) James Paul told Barbados TODAY while he agrees a system is needed to encourage more use of locally produced items in the tourism sector, it would require “the cooperation of all tourism stakeholders”.
“It is not across the board that people are not interested in using local produce, it might come to the point where we have to look and see whether or not we are giving the correct incentives for people to be able to do it, and how do we shape an incentive to actually produce a result that we want to produce,” said Paul, adding that government could perhaps examine the possibility of “rewarding private sector businesses and those in the tourism industry” that utilize local products more.
At the same time, the BAS head said Barbados risked the chance of being criticized by international agencies who may argue that government was engaging in preferential treatment.
However, Paul said by using more locally produced items there were a number of benefits to individuals, farmers and the country.
“One, it conserves foreign exchange, it also encourages Barbadians to eat healthier and it also provides a market for locally produced agricultural goods. I believe that if that market is there you would see more production, but we need the cooperation of the hoteliers and it just cannot be a government responsibility,” said Paul.
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I CAN'T BELIEVE I READ THE LINE WHERE JENNIFER MENTIONS SHE PLANTEDS YAMS IN A TIRE? LADY! IF YOU REAP ONE OF THOSE YAMS PLEASE INFORM ME AND THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE SCIENCE, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON.
HANDCLEAR BARBADOS NEEDS; TO BE PRECISE 44 ACRES OF COCONUT GROVE TO PRODUCE EFECTIVELY FOR THE LOCAL AND TOURIST MARKET AS FOR EXPORT I WOULD SAY 60ACRES OF HIGH YEALD VARIETY COCONUT TREES.
LOTS OF FALLOW LANDS CAN BE UTILISED FOR THE PRODUCTION OF OUR OWN LOCALLY PRODUCED AND PRESSED OLIVE OIL IF WE ONLY TOOK THE TIME, EFFORT AND SKILL TO PRODUCE THIS HEALTHY AND ESSENTIAL PRODUCT. SEE HOW WELL THEY GROW BY JUST PLANTING SOME VARIETIES AND WATCH NATURE TAKE IT'S COURSE. AT LEAST OLIVE TREES WOULD BE STANDING WHERE MIA-MOSS WOULD BE GROWING WILD.
@hcalndre - who manufactures breadfruit and S. potato chips?
We keep going around in circles.
FALERNUM
Dont be an idiot!!!
Speak for your self.
As a Black person, I grow mangoes, bananas, passion fruits, broad leaf thyme, figs, paw paws.
What do you grow????
@OBSERVER
Investing more in farming help the small farmers developed lease some of that wasteland government own you have to start some way I notice finally politicians are beginning to wake up it’s not too late
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do not be fooled sir, the politicians are now waking up because of the loud noise of the bugle call to muster for the upcoming general election.
An excellent post by @Cecil Brooks to complement a truthful and thought provoking essay by Dr Fletcher-PAul. For years i and many others have said the DLP should not offer such gigantic rebates/sweeteners to places such as Sandals and its ilk. Yet the giveaways have continued to the detriment of local producers. this is madness and never happened when Politicians of the past allowed foreign firms to operate. We must now surely stop this madness. Ring the bell please.
Anyone ever passes by Haggatts and see all them star fruit on the ground?Need I say more about these inefficient practices?
Breadfruits are exported where and how many tons? Barbados was never a food basket of the Caribbean. How many of the visitors from No. America and Europe and their children are going to eat Barbados food on a large scale, are you going to force feed them? When foods or any product is being produced, it must be of high standard, quality and available as needed not Barbados standards. I hear a lot of talk about the water coconut, is there any place in Barbados with thousands of trees like other places to even speak of a factory to produce cans or bottles like Grace of Jamaica.
No question about it, Barbadians need to plant (more) food. Each of us can plant something. The last time I made this point someone said we should plant in Guyana. It would be cheaper.
That may be so, but you still have to use foreign exchange to pay to import it.
It still does not help our food security. If something happens in Guyana or anywhere else for that matter, that restricts their food production, they will ensure that their needs are taken care of before exporting to Barbados.
Didn't we see that with tourism when the British government imposed a new travel tax on tickets originating in Britain. The same thing would happen when exporters to us are faced with a situation that jeopardises the need they have.
But we have to 'Plant Barbados'.
Another thing we have neglected and treated with little respect is breadfruit, one of the heathiest fruit on the planet; helps in preventing many different kinds of ailments.
Breadfruit flour can be substituted for wheat flour! But we have treated it like poor man food.
Breadfruit is presently being exported from Barbados, Did you know that? But no one is urging Barbadian to grow this fruit which can be harvested twice a year.
Dwarf breadfruit trees can be planted. These grow to about 10 maybe twelve feet; at least that is the height of the ones I see planted in St. Philip. These can be seen when you travel from 6 Roads towards St. Philip parish church. This provides a further opportunity to eat more local foods and also increase exports.
What is also needed is a guaranteed market for small farmers' output. Too many farmers are seen along the highways trying to sell their produce. There should be an agency guaranteeing them a market for their output so that they do not have to stay away from the growing to also do the selling. If this is in place already, then someone should inform these small and household farmers what is happening and possible.
Action is needed and less talk.
I have also noticed from gov statistics that the output of root crops in particular has been dropping. Incentives need to be provided to encourage more planting. Also something needs to be done about the monkeys and the two-foot food thieves. I recommended in the past that we use DRONES to police our farms both night and day. This monitoring has now become commonplace in other countries. We have the skill; we need the will.
If we cannot bounty kill monkeys because of international agreements we have signed (big mistake) we should at least control their growth in numbers.
We need to know how many they are and their breeding patterns so that we can control their numbers.