(Excerpts of Leader of the Opposition, Honourable Dr Godwin Friday’s 2025 Budget presentation)
As important as agriculture is to the country, there is no plan in the budget to rebuild it. The same approach, a scattershot approach, with no real plan for the sector. How can this be, when under 24 years of ULP rule agriculture has been brought to its knees and farmers have been neglected. In 2022, agriculture’s contribution was down to a mere 4.6% of GDP according to a World Bank report.
This government is full of self-praise for anything they do. But they cannot credibly praise themselves for what they have done in agriculture. Agriculture has suffered because of this government over the years pursued a development strategy that sidelined agriculture and farmers. They see agriculture as a thing of the past. They see farmers as welfare cases, wooed and bamboozled with handouts of small tools, free fertilizer, and short-term cash payments doled out at politically convenient times, such as now, on the eve of general elections.
Agriculture and farmers have never been central to the government’s development plan; but farmers have always been central to their political plans. Don’t confuse the two! One sees them as an essential component of our development; the other sees them as political fodder to be manipulated for votes. Farmers are smarter than that. While many gave the government the benefit of the doubt when they first brought forward projects, they now see they were all gimmicks, not seriously intended to improve agriculture and their own conditions.
So, after 24 years of ULP rule, we have arrived at a point where farmers have lost faith in the government; because they feel they have been left out of the plans for the future of the country. We have consulted with farmers at our headquarters; we have visited them on their farms; we have brought their concerns to the forefront of public discourse on radio and social media; and we have brought their concerns to this parliament in questions and as part of debates.
Some of the most serious Problems are:
- The biggest problem is lack of vision and leadership in the government
- Lack of road access to farms and available lands
- Praedial larceny and damage caused by stray dogs
- Lack of proper production and marketing system
- Lack of a National Agricultural Census
- Aging of farmer population
- Lack of a comprehensive plan for agriculture
Solutions
Implement a comprehensive National Access Feeder Roads Rehabilitation Program. Establish a quarterly farm road clearing and cleaning program in an effort to maintain feeder roads. Serious problem, crippling farming; needs serious attention to solution. We have adopted a zero-tolerance policy. Review, strengthen and implement laws and regulation relating to theft of agricultural produce and damage from dogs. Review of value-of-damage assessment for both crops and livestock caused by praedial larceny and stray dogs. Establish a Praedial Larceny Unit (PLU) within the Ministry of Agriculture using police officers. And, establish a direct link between the Ministry of Agriculture and the Police to facilitate collaboration between the police and the Ministry of Agriculture in combating this problem.
Activate the palletization plants in Langley Park, La Croix and Belmont as buying depots. These depots can facilitate collection, grading, sorting and packaging of produce “ready for sale” to supermarkets, traffickers and exporters. Putting these facilities into productive use, (other than for wet fetes and carnival parties)!
Governance structure could be wholly government-operated or in partnership with the private sector. A certification system, monitored by the Bureau of Standards or another entity can be created to act in such a role; this will ensure that crops are produced to meet set standards. Implementation of a grading system to reward producers who meet the set standards and provide extension services to aim to bring all producers up to top standard.
Role of Ministry of Agriculture
Retrain staff for the implementation of different extension service approaches. For example, a commodity driven approach. Identification of 5 crops that have huge export potential for foreign exchange earnings. Reconfigure and strengthen research and development in areas of interest to maximize potential yields, post-harvest handling and agro processing.
Livestock
Construction of an abattoir. Promote “local production for local market” strategy, and help reduce meat imports. Implementation of a breeding program to support “grass-fed” production and export of livestock (this market currently exists in the region and the USA). Create separate Agriculture and Fisheries ministries.
Food and nutrition security
Establish and implement programs to enhance both primary and secondary production systems. This will include the comprehensive upgrades of government facilities to enhance capacity to produce clean planting materials as well as encouraging and facilitating the private sector to get involved in these ventures. Establish a program of animal and plant germplasm identification and conservation. Improve access to new germplasms that have characteristics such as drought/flood and heat tolerance.
Construct protected agriculture structures (greenhouses) that ensure all-year round production. Implement a robust and comprehensive soil and water conservation program, with the aim at re-establishing soil and water conservation measures such as grass barriers and contour drains. The program will also include waste management and utilization such as composting and reduction in the use of harmful pesticides.
Lack of a National Agricultural Census since 2000.
Agricultural data is needed to monitor the existing agricultural and food supply conditions and to provide accurate and reliable information to help governments and other users in the process of short-term to medium-term decision-making. The Census of Agriculture provides the only source of uniform, comprehensive, and impartial agricultural data for every part of the country. The Census of Agriculture is the backbone of the entire Agriculture Statistics System.
In the absence of an agricultural census, the country lacks the capacity to produce, analyze and report on the minimum set of agricultural indicators. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines conducted its two most recent Census of Agriculture in 1985/1986 and 2000.