Post Dean dominican agriculture

It was as if the downward slide we recently experienced with our agricultural was not enough. Then here comes Major Dean to cause more havoc to our already fragile agricultural sector. You see the point is that when agriculture suffers everyone suffers. Not only those for whom it is a business but even those for whom it holds no economic importance. For me the adage “from dust to dust” doesn’t only mean death but a return to the soil for nourishment, development and even survival. Man truly needs to return to what some call “Mother Earth” in some circles, not just in word only but in deed. There has to be an aggressive move towards sustainable agriculture.

We seem to think we are doing others a favour by producing food. The whole world is now concerned about the possible shortage of food for human consumption. I remember when growing up I said to foreigners that someone can never starve in Dominica. However, I am beginning to rethink this idea as today we have to pay EC$5.00 for three small Dasheen (Taro) corms and EC$2.00 for five ripe bananas. Bananas you say? Yes, Bananas! The same banana some of us headed from the valleys to the boxing plants and fed our pigs. Now we can’t even find any for export or even home consumption.

The whole scope of our existence is now rapidly changing yet, we as a people don’t seem to take this seriously. Agriculture should not only be about business and profits. Oh how much we need that but it also has to be about survival of the generations to come. What do you think will happen twenty years down the road? Will we be buying Yams, Dasheen, Plantains, Bananas from our neighbors? Or will it be just too expensive to grow these crops? Now this leads me to yet another fundamental issue regarding the cost and availability of inputs and the availability of agricultural lands.

One of the reasons our farmers are turning away from the production of agricultural crops relates to the high costs of basic inputs such as fertilizers, weedicides and pesticides generally. I’ve seen the price of a bag of fertilizer for example, move from EC$40.00 to EC$70.00 within the last five to ten years. The real fact is that these farmers were not prepared for these changes in global agriculture. They were not sufficiently prepared to stand on their own but rather to depend on “handed down support” from governments and other aid agencies. Now that kind of support can no longer be sustained by our governments and friendly agencies. Now the deprived farmers are left to fend for themselves with no real guidance coming from those who know better.

What is really coming next? We have had global warming, environmental issues, storms, hurricanes, man made disasters and even flooding (yes flooding). What is next? No one knows what is next yet the best we in Dominica can do is, like the scouts would say, “Be Prepared”.