[dropcap]A[/dropcap]fter countless discussions with farmers and their families, it became clear that many of them claim to have been unjustly treated by the Ministry of Agriculture. Some issues may seem blatant and glaring, such as the limited funds available for investment in the industries that fall under agricultural produce. But for Minister Ezechiel Joseph, when some farmers claim that the Ministry of Agriculture is not providing support he says, “I’m no stranger to that, you can never satisfy everybody. All you have to do is stay focused and do what you can and use the limited resources that you have and, of course, the impact is there.” He went on to clarify that impact meant the improvements that the sector has experienced, especially within the last year.
The hours within and surrounding September 16, 2017, the second category 5 storm of the Atlantic Hurricane Season threatened Saint Lucia’s banana industry specifically. Some farmers did experience unfortunate circumstances, as the Minister for Agriculture confessed: “The hurricane did affect some pockets of the industry in Saint Lucia, especially the areas we are really targeting. That’s the Roseau Valley which saw about 35% of the industry totally wiped out because of the passage of the hurricane.”
Despite this, the production from the industry still experienced a significant increase, as promised by Ezechiel Joseph in August 2017. He was able to give an estimate based on the figures available to him from Winfresh, “I’m talking about the UK market, we are seeing — whilst we have not accomplished the 300% — but we are seeing at least 200% increase [in 2017] compared to 2016.” And although the statistics for banana export regionally are still being researched, the minister claimed, “A lot more bananas were shipped, especially up north as it pertains to the hurricane and the impact on Dominica.”
The relieving announcement doesn’t stop there. Just as Minister Joseph conveyed during his Christmas address to the nation, he has set his hopeful eyes on a gleaming horizon for even more improvement in numbers in the year ahead. Much of this is as a result, according to Minister Joseph, of farmers practising recommendations that are rendered to them.
Further to this, the “impacts” on the agricultural industry in the form of programmes implemented may even present the demand for increased production in the near future. According to Joseph, “Since they [representatives from our traditional UK market] came down here last year and they met with myself and the Prime Minister and they went around, they are satisfied that the programmes we are putting in place should be able for us to supply them on a sustainable basis.” Therefore those increased contractual agreements (including a new deal struck with a French market) would require a significant increase in the number of bananas available for export.
To accommodate this, the Ministry of Agriculture hopes to continue providing the resources and subsidies needed to maintain a high standard crop. A “new marketing entity” was also promised in the coming year which is expected to provide “critical support needed to increase production of targeted crop and, more importantly, the marketing intelligence, infrastructure and arrangements for the sale of these crops locally, regionally and internationally”.
There are supplemental discussions to also provide farmers with insurance for financial protection against certain impacts of climate change. Hopefully, with these new implementations, progressions, investments and agreements, Minister Ezechiel Joseph and Prime Minister Honourable Allen Chastanet may just be able to achieve replenishing farmers’ once overflowing confidence in the agricultural industry. However, farmers know that we’ve travelled a long distance from the days of Green Gold.
