Senator: Strong technology push needed for agricultural sector

In order for Barbados’ agricultural sector to grow by leaps and bounds there needs to be strong investment in technology and opportunities for the youth.

This was the main sentiment coming out of a handing over ceremony of an innovation centre for agriculture held on Friday at the Home Agriculture Station in Kirtons, St Philip.

During his remarks, Independent Senator Dr Chelston Brathwaite said the youth have a critical role to play in the development of the industry.

“It is the youth who will move the agricultural sector forward because the youth are adaptable to utilising technology in a way that old people can’t. All the countries of the world that made significant progress in their development in the last 50 years have depended heavily on innovation and technology.

“Sad to say agriculture has been left behind in terms of the application of science and technology, but we are at the stage now recognising that weakness, recognising the fact that we are not where we should be. We are taking serious steps to introduce innovation and technology into the agricultural sector to increase productivity, to make us more resilient in terms of climate change, to increase our possibility for food security, to achieve the 25 per cent reduction in food imports by 2025,” he said.

Brathwaite also said that Barbados could no longer depend on tourism as the sole economic driver, adding that given all the recent challenges globally it was important to grow more of what we consume.

“Agriculture should be a modern part of our economy that contributes to the resilience and diversification of our economy. We can no longer depend exclusively on tourism for our growth. In addition to that, we are importing too much of our food. Evidence suggests that we only produce about 25 per cent of what we consume. That is not a satisfactory situation. And given the challenges today, the war in Ukraine with Russia, the war in the Middle East … climate change, COVID-19 and all the other potential global threats, it is important that we begin to produce more of what we consume,” Brathwaite said.

The participants of two recent short courses received certificates during the ceremony.

The three-day backyard gardening course comprised 12 people, while a three-week drone flying course comprised eight extension officers from the Ministry of Agriculture. Two drones were donated to the ministry.

The Ministry of Agriculture in partnership with the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) organised the courses that were held at the Home Agriculture Station.

Minister of Agriculture Indar Weir also highlighted the need for young people and technology to be at the core of the growth of the sector.

“The future of agriculture and Barbados cannot be and will not be open field agriculture using traditional modalities. And that is why I’m so pleased to note that we have people who have been trained in piloting drones because this centre must become a centre of excellence for agriculture where we do training for persons who want to pilot drones. The other thing is that we are establishing right here on this site, a state of the art tissue culture lab that gives us the opportunity to be able to do tissue culture for all or most of the crops that we are growing here in Barbados.

“So, we need to have young people involved and you cannot get them involved by asking people to go to an open field with a fork and a hole and [manure] to do … once we can convince our young minds that agriculture is a viable career option through the use of technology, then we are going to get growth. It will not happen in the traditional approach,” he said.

The IICA representative to Barbados Allister Glean applauded the Government for its efforts toward the advancement of agriculture.

After the ceremony, there was a demonstration in which a ‘farm bot’ was used to water plants.

(SZB)