The discussion on Caroni should cause us and the major stakeholders to focus on the role agriculture should play in our economy given the signals that are coming from the international arena. But first, agriculture falls into the main categories of subsistence farming (farmers plant etc. for their own needs and sell the surplus using basic tools and technology), farming for local consumption–for the local market–and export agriculture.
Sugar was about export agriculture and in the plantation economy the bulk of our food was and still is imported. We spend some $4 billion per year on food imports. Our local farmers provide vegetables and fruit, which barely compete with imports, and our chicken factory farms also face severe competition from imported chicken. Our fishermen are high priced additions to imported high quality fish.
The present government, as others before, is talking about reducing the food import bill and is offering incentives to farmers via, for example as small businesses, NEDCO, land distribution, marketing, loans etc. Still, some are talking about reviving Caroni via re-investment in the mills for up to date machinery, tractor pools for small 'efficient' cane farmers with a view towards the revitalisation of the sugar plantation, with sugar again as an export crop. Others see the use of Caroni lands for the growing of fruits and vegetables.
The status quo with high food import bills depends on the continuation of the energy sector to provide the country with the foreign exchange–at present it earns some 90% of our total foreign exchange–and the existence of cheap food globally for import. This is a plantation economy and change by its stakeholders is inhibited by our history.
However, we need to read the signals coming from the global market place and reconstruct our economy also with respect to food to face the threats these signals foretell.
The signals tell us that oil prices will continue their upward trend and since mass food production depends on oil from the farm, to processing plants, to transport and fertilisers, food prices are on their way up. Climate change is reaping havoc in certain traditional food production areas. Also the burgeoning global population (China, India, Africa) is demanding better food while the available arable land is decreasing.
Shale gas and renewable energy will help bearing in mind that it takes a substantial amount of energy to make ethanol compared with what it delivers–also ethanol production requires land–robbing food production.Locally we appear to be past our peak production of both oil and gas and anything that may be still in the ground will be expensive to produce. Hence we may be nearing the end of our ability to import most of our food, if only because of the unavailability of foreign exchange.
The response to these signals, given our history and lack of advanced skills, lies at the feet of our government. Surely a land-use plan, its distribution, easier loans and even inviting the Cubans to show us how to run large farms etc. are insufficient.
The response required is part of my general recommendation for a national innovation system in agriculture in these circumstances that the signals foretell. In a thriving economy agriculture cannot remain at the virtual subsistence level of non-technology; it has to benefit also from knowledge, its use and creation–innovation.
Mary K. King