The governor of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) has told member states of the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union (ECCU) that modern management practices must be incorporated into agricultural development.
Sir K Dwight Venner made the comment while answering questions from the people of the ECCU during a simultaneous radio and television broadcast Thursday.
“It is not to say that we can’t be more productive in agriculture, but we’d have to apply science and technology to agriculture if it’s going to be productive. We can improve our agricultural capacity significantly if we apply science and technology,” Venner stated.
He said ECCU nations must make a “conscious effort” to integrate agriculture with tourism in order to make the industry more competitive.
those two brite bulbs parry belot and yvor nasseif , dont think agriculture and tourism have any place together
For years I have long been telling folks that we should look at how Israel does its agriculture, and instead of the Taiwanese ‘experts’, we should have had Israelies. Granted I have never been to Taiwan to see how they do things, but for me they were too synthetically inclined for our already rich soils. That was bound to breed disaster. The western system is geared more towards supporting large agricultural input industries than improving efficiency and health, so I would discount them.
The Israelies have a desert, a stoney desert at that, and they produce good food on it. The reason? They don’t do peasantry like we do, they ENGINEER their farms before planting a single seed, strategically lay it all out and then plant. It is a comparatively heavy first time investment, but it is sure worth it. This way light vegetables such as lettuce etc., are lifted from the ground into waist level trays so that there is no back breaking bending, evertything is grown in containers so that the correct quality of soil is provided for all crops and according to the type of crop the containers are inserted into the ground for stability, temparature control etc., inputs are controlled by insertion drip method – the adjustment of a tap or a switch etc. rather than the back-breaking or hit or miss input systems that we employ.
Dominica needs specialized systems that are geared to our peculiar conditions, not because our soils are not good, but because our soils may be too good at producing weeds that compete with the food crops for nutrients, and because of problems associated with steep or sloping lands.
I could go on and on, but suffice it to say, that there is a whole new world of exciting and highly technical agricultural systems (not synthetic chemical dependent systems) waiting for our youth to explore.
I would watch that because ‘modern’ these days means Monsanto and you definitely don’t want the GMO stuff down here unless you want illness and cancer.
You don’t want a lot of scence and technology (except for farm equipment) in agriculture. If you don’t believe me research what happened to India and Argentina where Monsanto was concerned.
He who controls the seeds controls the crops. And Monsanto wants to make sure that you have to buy all of your GMO seeds from them.
Sir Venner has beautiful teeth and an amazing smile!
well D/cans never too old to learn
I think the ministry should look seriously into this matter instead of the blame game. Al material wealth comes from the earth. Agriculture is not just important but very essential for economic development.
Totally agree. Dominica is blessed because we still have agriculture as our backbone if something goes bad with the tourism market. It’s unfortunate though that so many people aren’t interesting in agriculture anymore. We should never forsake our land, our good land.
we are a little afar off let’s get it together
Amazing how few seem interested in such important issues
it is not a big waylawayla what they like
Agreed. But why does it take an economist to say that science and technology should be applied to agriculture?
Well said,I have always believe tourism and agriculture should go hand in hand. Tourist must eat and money have to spend.