Agriculture ministry announces major farm export push, home food drive

The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Nutritional Security used an inaugural rice harvest on Wednesday to unveil a series of major initiatives designed to propel agriculture through the global export arena while tackling food security at the household level.

​Heading the announcements is an aggressive new export strategy that will see the construction of a certified, export-ready packing facility within the next four months. Developed in collaboration with Export Barbados, the pack house is designed to scale up domestic production and target markets beyond the Caribbean.

 A second certified packing facility is also slated for development at Groves, St George to further boost the island’s export capabilities.

Agriculture minister Dr Shantal Munro-Knight declared that the country is shifting its focus from merely sustaining itself to actively participating in global trade.

​”Previously, we have focused solely on feeding yes ourselves. So that is important, and that is again, a commitment, but we are also focused on how we can export,” she said at a rice harvest ceremony at the Pine Basin farming district. 

​​To support this commercial expansion, the government is launching ‘Carmeta’s Crown’, a national challenge inviting Barbadians to submit innovative, processed agro-products. The Barbados Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (BADMC) will provide chosen participants with marketing support, resources, and capacity building to retail their products in its Carmeta’s stores.

The ministry said it will soon roll out ‘Project Care’, a grassroots initiative aimed at empowering citizens to grow fruits, vegetables, and protein elements directly in their backyards.

​Dr Munro-Knight noted that these initiatives are designed to counter the narrative that Barbadians are uninterested in farming, framing the current global economic and climate anxieties as a catalyst for Barbadian ingenuity.

​”We are caught in a frame in which we have an imperative to be able to grow, produce more, to feed ourselves,” she said. “We have a perfect storm. The global context, climate change, what is happening with supply side constraints, and the reality of our own internal constraint as a small island state… [but] out of any storm and out of any crisis and challenge, that is the moment when we can have innovation at scale and something new can arise.”

​The major policy announcements coincided with the successful harvest of the Huan-Barbados Agricultural Technology Cooperation Project’s Upland Rice initiative. The Golden Sickle Shared Food Security project, now in its third phase, is a technical partnership with China that has successfully introduced commercial rice cultivation to Barbadian soil.

​The initiative has provided on-the-farm training and demonstration for farmers at Pine Basin, building long-term technical capacity and offering a practical pathway toward agricultural diversification and import reduction. While acknowledging that total reliance on rice imports cannot be erased overnight, the farm minister hailed the harvest as a definitive marker of regional progress.

​”I don’t think that Barbadians would have envisioned that we would be growing rice, here in Barbados, and then with the capacity to be able to grow even further at scale,” Dr Munro-Knight said. “I cannot say to you that from this year or even next year, that we will be able to replace totally all of the imports and particularly the import of rice. But I do say to you that where we are today is not where we were two years before. Where we are today represents progress.”

​The rice project is part of a broader, multi-commodity push, which includes ongoing plans to scale up West Indian Sea Island Cotton production and expand the national Black Belly sheep programme.

China’s Ambassador to Barbados, Zheng Bingkai, highlighted the immense potential of upland rice cultivation to transform farming, boost climate resilience, and slash the island’s food import bill.

Ambassador Zheng noted that this particular variety is ideal for smallholders: “This variety is fit for small farmers… it is a fit for small parcels or small plots,” he stated, pointing out the economic incentive for domestic production. “Every year in Barbados, we are spending $8m just to import rice from outside. So, we say there could be the potential to transfer into a good business for all the farmers.”

​The Chinese envoy touted the crop as a “climate-smart” solution for the island by significantly reducing water usage, particularly if aligned with the weather cycle. “If we can start our cultivation, for example, from May to October, it means the whole cycle will be in our wet season. So, almost zero consumption of extra water,” he explained.

​Reflecting on a recent ministerial colloquium, Ambassador Zheng praised Barbados’s readiness to revitalise its food production, describing the government’s approach as a “holistic solution” that is both practical and comprehensive.

Next year’s 50th anniversary of diplomatic ties between China and Barbados, puts the accent on agricultural and technological cooperation. “We are in the process of establishing a community with a shared future,” Ambassador Zheng delcared. “We are developing partners. It means we are good only if you are good. That’s our belief.”

Acting CEO BADMC Fredrick Inniss. (Photo Credit: Ricardo Roberts)

(RR)