BARVEN President Urges Government Action Amid Bleak Christmas Produce Predictions

Some vendors are predicting a bleak Christmas produce-wise, with president of the Barbados Association of Retailers, Vendors and Entrepreneurs (BARVEN) Alister Alexander saying agriculture itself was at risk if things did not change.

He is calling on Government to do more to ease farmers, especially concerning the price of water from the Barbados Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (BADMC).

“The truth is, though, that water is a problem. The farmers who are part of the Government projects will tell you that the price of water is now beyond them. It has carried their production costs above what they are able to handle and they are dreading the possibility of a drought or more drought-like conditions in the year. A lot of farmers are already devastated, this is a fact.

“BARVEN will be speaking to Government again. I know that Government faces certain realities, but we have to decide if we want to have agriculture or not; we have to decide if we want to be food secure or not. And if, therefore, we want to be food secure, then the water rate has to be lowered for farmers or agriculture will come to an end as we know it,” he said.

As for the availability of produce, the president said climate change seemed to be the culprit behind the scarcity.

“You usually find some produce is scarce during these months but it is even worse now. Because of the extreme weather, we have not had an abundance of produce at no time in the year,” he said.

Dangerous position

Alexander, speaking in the BARVEN market off the Mighty Grynner Highway on Saturday, advised the public not to bother looking for too many tomatoes or local carrots, adding there used to be gluts of them in times past. In fact, he advised Barbadians not to expect too much of anything.

“As far as I see it, in farming, somebody does get to grow something but not enough to supply a country. Even importing vegetables, that is so precarious now you see the wars in the world. I am telling you that we are in an absolutely dangerous position.

“What makes it worse is that customers are missing their local produce. Bajans, contrary to what people think, prefer the local stuff,” he said.

A vendor in Cheapside market, The City, who only gave his name as “Vegetable Man”, said he had given up on local produce.

“I don’t sell local food anymore because you can’t get any. I used to be able to get things like sweet potatoes, cucumber and squash but not anymore. I get produce from as far as Australia and South Africa but food scarce all over the world. I feel it’s weather patterns to blame,” he said.

Cardinal Lewis said most farmers were scrambling to plant produce for Christmas but currently there “ain’t really got much of nothing”.

“Only a little bit of potatoes will be ready and maybe some chives, lettuce and sweet peppers, but I don’t anticipate no big lotta nothing for Christmas except maybe cucumber and lettuce that grows quick. Christmas is not looking so good for produce,” he said.

Back in the BARVEN market, Manfred Jordan said some produce was scarce because of changes in the weather.

“You’re getting sudden heavy rain, then the extreme heat, so the crops find it very hard to grow. You can’t get much of a lot of things like sweet peppers, lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers. But I still have some yam, squash, avocado pears and sweet potatoes,” he said.

However, Halcourt Bovell said it was not time to panic: “You’re going to eat. If you don’t eat one thing, there’s something else.

“We have coconut water available, cane juice available, plantains available, watermelon, cantaloupe, sweet potatoes, and of course we have onions. We also expect to get more cucumbers, cantaloupe and watermelon, but beans, tomatoes and carrots are scarce right now,” he said.

Monkeys

Bovell said he once saw a field of carrots get washed away but added weather was not all to blame as monkeys had decimated someone’s beans.

In Cheapside, Maxine and Frederick Sealy said they had no plans of giving up and would do their part to help Barbados plant more food.

“We’ve planted more beans and we got cucumber coming as well as ‘sugar baby’ melons, pumpkins and eddoes. I find people don’t really plant eddoes here. We need to grow more food in Barbados; if everybody planted something, even in a kitchen garden, things wouldn’t be so hard,” Maxine said. On Saturday during his address at the Barbados Agricultural Society’s (BAS) annual general meeting, Minister of Agriculture Indar Weir expressed concern about the increasing number of fallow lands across Barbados.

He said this was despite the State providing resources such as water tanks, trucks and free cultivation services, constructed dams and facilitating water connections in key farming areas.

He called on BAS members to support the BADMC in pushing for full production in underutilised areas.

Weir said unusual weather patterns, such as unprecedented heat and unexpected rainfall, have been predicted to continue through year-end, and poor planning and lack of action now would hinder farmers’ ability to cultivate in the coming months, given the challenging ground conditions.

He appealed to farmers to join him in making agriculture not just viable but lucrative. (CA)