Paul: Don’t compromise agricultural sector

Chief Executive Officer of the Barbados Agricultural Society, James Paul, says that while there is obviously a need to look at land use policies for this country, such efforts cannot be made at the expense of the agricultural sector.

“We are looking to develop a sustainable agricultural development bill, cognisant of the fact that we also need to preserve some measure of food security for Barbados. That in itself cannot be achieved if, for instance, the planning permissions that are given for tourism development for example compromise agricultural land in any way. So when we talk about the land use policies needing to be dealt with I agree, but from the point of view that we cannot compromise the agricultural sector in the long term,” he contended during a recent interview with The Barbados Advocate.

With that in mind, he suggested that the policies should be geared towards trying to link the agricultural and tourism sectors, with the latter providing an avenue for produce to be sold. He maintained that this is the route Barbados has to take rather than a situation where we encourage the current model, which basically relies largely on imported products and there is no attempt, he lamented, to promote locally produced products.

“Perhaps we need actors within the agricultural and tourism sectors in terms of facilitating that kind of approach towards our development, and the fact of the matter is that the
spend per visitor is down largely because … they have less disposable incomes due to the recession. So, if that is the case, what we should be aiming to get is an even higher percentage of local spend and trying to retain as much of the US dollar that we can get that the visitors spend down here through locally produced goods,” he said.

The BAS head said that there should be a system that works with the hotels and restaurants to promote locally produced goods, even if it requires that greater focus is placed on product development, or product research in terms of trying to make the product appealing to tourists.

“That is the area I think we should pursuerather than have a situation where we do tourism development, but it is at the expense of locally produced agricultural commodities,” he said.

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