![\"Commentary\"](\"http:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/commentary2.jpg\")
In the budget presentation the Prime Minister stated and I quote “Government\u2019s plan is to maintain agriculture as a leading contributor to economic growth.”<\/p>\nIn the budget presentation the Prime Minister stated and I quote “Government\u2019s plan is to maintain agriculture as a leading contributor to economic growth.”<\/p>\n
That statement in itself sounds very good, and without a doubt that was the intent of it to sound good, to create a good impression and to make believe that our intentions are real, just and the development of the sector is our focus.<\/p>\n
I want to hasten to say, that I have watched and observed the policies, plans and programs of this government for a number of years and I have concluded and the information speaks for itself, that there is very little interest in Agriculture and for the most part lip service is paid to the development of agriculture in this country.<\/p>\n
There is no will to do anything serious about it because there are obvious advantages for the government to keep the rural population at a stage where they can always influence and manipulate the decision making process of these people. Agriculture has never been and it still is not a priority for this government.<\/p>\n
While I will admit that the minister is a good young man with great energies and enthusiasm at his work, the choice of him as the minister for Agriculture speaks\u00a0volumes of the governments focus to maintain agriculture as a leading contributor to the economy. He does not possess the “political influence” and capacity needed to get policies pass the “heads”, that are needed to revive this sector.<\/p>\n
As I read carefully through the programs intended to maintain agriculture as a leading contributor to economic growth, I realize that these activities intend to take us back 10 years and to seek to reestablish a platform that was deliberately destroyed and then to see if they can find the way back to where we should have been.<\/p>\n
Firstly I want to state that the devastation that Black Sigatoka was allowed to unleash on our banana and plantain industry is clear evidence of the lack of commitment to the industry and the impact it can have on economic development. I say this, having worked in the department of agriculture as a supervisor for a number of years,\u00a0before I resigned. Having been a part of the many trainings which were conducted jointly with all stake holders of the industry, as far back as around 2005-2006.<\/p>\n
Back then the impact of the disease on our country was assessed, since it was already present in our neighboring countries and strategies and systems were put in place to monitor and identify early warning signs of the presence of the disease on island.<\/p>\n
Additionally emergency action plans were developed for dealing with the infestation once it was spotted. So to have allowed it to reach the levels it reached is an indication of neglect of responsibilities and failure to activate and to follow through with the systems which were instituted to fight the disease.<\/p>\n
The recovery programme intends to be fueled by the use of tissue cultured plants (just to let us know that most of the bananas which were destroyed by the disease were tissue cultured). More importantly, is the fact that the expectations of the programme is that yields are expected to be 7 tonnes per acre. In 2005 -2006 there was a drive to move production from 7 and 8 tonnes per acre to 10 because it was very subsistence, uneconomical and unproductive at that tonnage.<\/p>\n
A simple calculation of production of bananas at 7 tonnes planted at 8X8 triangular spacing will reveal a production of 22 lbs per bunch when an average weight per box is around 35lbs . So in 2015 – 2016 in a renewed move to boost the industry, if our projected targets are 7 tones, it means something is either wrong with us or very little or no thought has been put into this initiative or we really don’t intend for it to have much impact, but just so that it is not said we neglect agriculture.<\/p>\n
Sadly this is happening while at the same time in our region there is a massive influx or an invasion of our markets by bananas from our same European competitors.<\/p>\n
Are we really serious at economic growth and making agriculture a leader? Let blind eyes be opened.<\/p>\n
Opinions expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of Dominica News Online or its advertisers.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the budget presentation the Prime Minister stated and I quote “Government\u2019s plan is to maintain agriculture as a leading contributor to economic growth.” That statement in itself sounds very good, and without a doubt that was the intent of…","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":39536,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-144198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n