Minister rejects view that youth uninterested in farming

A new generation is ready to farm, but needs clear opportunities and support to succeed, agriculture minister Dr Shantal Munro-Knight has said, challenging long-held views about youth disinterest in agriculture.

Months of meetings with farmers, she said, had convinced her that Barbados was overlooking a new generation eager to build careers in agriculture.

“I also learned that it’s a myth that young people are not interested in agriculture. It’s an absolute myth,” she told the Looking Forward: Agriculture 2030 colloquium hosted by the Ministry of Agriculture and Food and Nutritional Security on Monday.

“We have young people every single year who are doing courses at BCC, SJPI and the University of the West Indies. You want to tell me that young people are not interested? Those courses are there.”

The minister said she had also met several young farmers already making a successful living, including onion farmer Shimon Agard, whom she described as an example of untapped potential.

“Young people are interested in agriculture. What is lacking is the strategic pathway for how we provide opportunities for them.”

Dr Munro-Knight said creating those pathways would form a key pillar of the ministry’s transformation agenda.

Among the initiatives planned is an expanded internship programme to provide students from the Barbados Community College, Samuel Jackman Prescod Institute of Technology and the University of the West Indies with hands-on experience across the ministry’s departments and agencies.

“I’ve committed to making sure that the ministry… all of those students from SJPI and BCC that want to participate will be given an opportunity to do so,” she said.

The ministry also plans to introduce a summer camp programme that exposes young people to farming, agribusiness, science, and agricultural technology, while strengthening partnerships with schools to encourage entrepreneurship through agriculture.

Dr Munro-Knight said existing school greenhouses would be reimagined so that students not only grow crops but also learn the business side of agriculture.

“We want to actually embed them in a model where the kids grow their food, but we also give them back the money, so that we create, again, an agribusiness model within schools themselves,” she said.

The farm minister said reconnecting young people with agriculture also requires a shift in public attitudes: “I don’t believe that the average Barbadian has really connected with the value of agriculture.”

“So part of that hearts and minds concept is about how do we reconnect Barbadians with the notion of agriculture and what we grow and the value of it.”

The country’s farmers’ spokesman, James Paul, backed the minister, suggesting that the conversation should go beyond encouraging young people to enter agriculture.

“There is a focus… on the whole question of young people being involved in agriculture,” said Paul, chief executive of the Barbados Agricultural Society, adding that the issue was sometimes treated as “just a showpiece”.

He argued that greater emphasis should be placed on ensuring young farmers receive the long-term support needed to build sustainable businesses.

“We need to [ensure]… that we have systems in place to support them so that those do not fail and sometimes send a negative message to persons who want to invest in the sector too,” he said.

Dr Munro-Knight said changing perceptions, creating opportunities and strengthening support systems would be critical to building the next generation of farmers and advancing the country’s food security and agricultural resilience.

(SM)