Agriculture in the Bahamas - the Fairy Tale

by Larry Smith

Lately, there's been a rash of calls for Bahamians to turn to large-scale farming to address skyrocketing fuel and food prices.

A developer named Tony Joudi made several attempts to get the government to back his cock-eyed scheme to grow corn on hundreds of thousands of acres throughout the country.

He was asking us to clear our remaining forests so we could make ethanol to run our expensive sport utility vehicles on our over-congested roads.

More recently, strange noises have been made about growing rice in our brackish mangrove wetlands by none other than the Minister of Agriculture himself (who should know better).

And according to Edison Key, a one-time citrus farmer from Abaco who is now chairman of the Bahamas Agricultural and Industrial Corporation, "we are trying to fast forward the agricultural sector - we just need to get serious."

Thankfully, we have yet to hear calls for Bahamian pothole farmers to plant wheat fields to help lower the price of imported flour.

Food self-sufficiency for the Bahamas is an illusion. The fact is that ever since the failure of the loyalist plantations, large-scale agriculture has never worked here, despite brief exceptions such as the export trade in pineapples and sisal during the 19th century.

Bahamian conditions are simply not conducive to commercial agriculture. Pineapple fields for example, had to remain fallow for 15 to 20 years after producing only a few crops, and the industry was never large enough to justify a regular steamship run ((as the banana trade did in the West Indies and Central America).

Pineapple farmers faced the same problems of soil exhaustion and pests that the loyalists had faced before them. And competition from more efficient producers in America, Cuba and the Phillipines put an end to both the pineapple and sisal industries by the early 20th century.

Even subsistence agriculture is a problem in the Bahamas. Historians Michael Craton and Gail Saunders note that the predominant out island economy from emancipation to the 20th century was a shifting form of peasant farming.

"The practices of rotational slash and burn agriculture and the overcropping of the meagre surface vegetation by livestock hastened the process whereby the land became insufficient even for a steady population," they wrote in Islanders in the Stream.

Bahamians were "rooted to a soil that gave heartbreakingly meagre returns for the most backbreaking toil...There was nothing romantic about out island subsistence farming in the late 19th century. At best it was a triumph of necessity against the most unfavourable conditions - poor soil, harsh climate, natural disasters, animal pests."

Before the Second World War, about a third of all Bahamians were considered farmers - a figure which fell to about 10 per cent by the 1950s. In 2005 there were only about 1200 people classified as farmers in the entire country. And it is clear that without Haitian labour even these would be unable to survive.

Nevertheless, there have been ringing calls for a diversification of the Bahamian economy away from tourism and finance for as long as I can remember. As an official speechwriter at the Bahamas News Bureau in the 1970s, I wrote about linkages between agriculture and tourism so often it became boilerplate - something to be inserted at the appropriate point in every text.

The Pindling regime was big on talk about national self-sufficiency and the development of farming on the out islands. And in fact, there were two major agricultural developments initiated by the government during the Independence period, when nationalist fires were stoked to their highest point.

In 1936 an American investor named Austin Levy had set up a dairy and poultry farm on thousands of acres at Hatchet Bay on Eleuthera, supplying milk, eggs and ice cream to the Nassau market for decades. His plantation provided much of the infrastructure and prosperity for nearby Alice Town, including a general store, a yacht club and a power plant.

But Hatchet Bay Farm was taken over by the government in 1975, with much fanfare. According to former prime minister Sir Lynden Pindling, it was to become "the greatest success story in Bahamian agricultural history", but it closed in disarray nine years later and was never resuscitated.

In 1973, on 2000 acres of virgin land on Andros, an even bigger project was launched with even greater fanfare, heralded as "the capstone of Bahamian agricultural self-sufficiency".

The Bahamas Agricultural Research Centre was funded by a $10 million Independence gift from the United States to develop commercial agriculture based on family farming. Two American universities provided technical support and the best and brightest young Bahamian technocrats were enlisted to help run the project - including Earl Deveaux, the present minister of works.

BARC had a herd of 300 Santa Gertrudis cattle from Texas and a flock of 600 sheep used to improve the country's breeding stock. The project included a 500-acre research farm, 16 model farms of up to 80 acres each, credit facilities, marketing support and training programmes. Among the crops researched were soybeans, corn and sorghum as well as citrus, avocadoes and mangoes.

The farmers planted citrus, plantains, winter vegetables and feed crops for sheep, goats, and hogs. Initially, BARC provided all the inputs and guaranteed incomes. Farmers were then given a long-term land lease and credit facilities with local banks. A co-operative was formed to acquire machinery and produce was marketed through the government packing house. A training facility with a modern library was also included.

But by the late 1980s - after the Americans left - the project had dwindled to nothing. Horses and livestock were left to starve and expensive equipment discarded to rust. The machine shop, training centre and other central facilities were abandoned. Government officials, including then agriculture minister Perry Christie, tried to cover up the failure.

As a Tribune editorial railed at the time: "The government talks constantly of diversification; of developing agriculture to the point where Bahamians can feed themselves. But really they are not serious. look at the rotting fish landing complex on Potters Cay, Hatchet Bay and the Andros farms and realise that they are taking you, the public, for fools."

Aside from political interference, our small labour force and the general disinterest most Bahamians have today in making a living from the soil, agriculture is a complex business that requires a great deal of infrastructure to distribute the crops and livestock that are produced. And the biggest drawbacks in the Bahamas have always been transportation and marketing.

Food processing requires consistent production of high volumes of quality produce. The same is true for hotels and other large consumers of produce. According to geographer Neil Sealey, in his text book, The Bahamas Today, our failure to develop a modern agricultural sector is due to a number of factors, including the reality that the Bahamas is a nation of merchants with a history of living on imported staples.

Other reasons are competition from the United States, which produces huge farm surpluses at low cost only 50 miles from the nearest Bahamian island, and the limitations of our natural environment.

Bahamian soils are poor, thin and patchy - making them suitable in their natural state only for traditional shifting cultivation, experts say. Mechanised agriculture is restricted by frequent outcrops of bare rock. Water resources are scarce, and crops require heavy irrigation. To pursue commercial farming the ground must be specially prepared at great cost and large amounts of fertiliser are required.

In short, agriculture is a difficult and costly enterprise that few Bahamians are interested in pursuing.

But some commentators have suggested that the real reason we don't feed ourselves more is because of a racist business conspiracy against poor black Bahamians.

Last month Tribune columnist Adrian Gibson said successive governments had "slighted" Bahamian agriculture (completely overlooking the potted history presented above). He included suggestions that the "merchant elite" had orchestrated this in order to maintain its economic control.

And now we are talking about rice paddies in the creeks of Andros. When will it end?

Obama vs McCain

Well, we are living in history-making times.

The American presidential election is very likely to be contested by an inexperienced 46-year-old bi-racial lawyer with an arabic name and a hardbitten 72-year-old Scots-Irish ex-POW with a penchant for climate change.

Frankly, it's the most interesting presidential race in memory.

Unlike other African-Americans who have run for president, like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, Barak Obama's campaign is real rather than symbolic. And most Bahamians seem to be waiting with bated breath in trembling anticipation of a black man in the White House.

As columnist George Will said "(Obama) has chosen his racial identity, but chosen not to make it matter much." And in many ways his success at (almost) gaining the Democratic nomination refutes the theory of social determinism popular with many black leaders in the US.

McCain is a third generation naval officer who was held prisoner by the Vietnamese communists for over five years after bombing the hell out of them. He was first elected to Congress in 1982 and later returned to Vietnam as part of the normalisation process carried out by the Clinton administration.

According to one comparison of the two men by the New York Times, "Obama wrote 'very bad poetry' in college. McCain once contemplated joining the French Foreign Legion. Obama is the former rebel, who used to hang out with friends who wore leather jackets and stayed up late discussing 'neocolonialism, Franz Fanon, Eurocentrism and patriarchy.' McCain is the hell-raiser who hides an introspective bent behind his pose as a cocky flyboy."

But the most interesting aspect of this campaign is the message it sends about the evolution of racial politics in America. According to Obama, "it is a profoundly distorted view that white racism is endemic...but race is an issue we cannot afford to ignore. We need to work through the complexities of race.

"We don't have to recite the past injustices, but we have to recognise that the past has made the present.

"Blacks must not become victims of the past and must take full responsibility for their own lives. America can change - that is the true genius of the nation. In no other country on Earth would my story be possible."

"And despite all temptations to view my candidacy through purely racial lines, we won commanding victories among white Americans."

It is a message that we should be receptive to in the Bahamas.

Comments

[Bob Knaus]

Amen to your observations on Bahamian agriculture!

I am the son of a son of a farmer, and I grew up on a vegetable farm in Homestead FL which has soils and conditions virtually identical to Andros and the Abacos. I'd like to add a few comments as to why it's a REALLY bad idea for the Bahamas to pursue large-scale agricultural development.

First, the Bahamas is at a permanent disadvantage with regards to an agricultural labor force. The farms in south FL rely on a pool of migrant (mostly Mexican) labor who are accustomed to doing seasonal piecework. A good picker can make 2 to 3 times minimum wage, for a few weeks, and then move north to other work as the season progresses. The Bahamas has a largely stationary labor force, which means that the Haitians who do agricultural work must live on nothing when there is no work to be done. No surprise then, when few people want to be farm laborers!

Secondly, being a scattered archipelago makes it very difficult to tap into the US transportation system in a timely manner. A truckload of produce can make it from Guatemala to New York City sooner than a truckload from the Exumas can. Why did I pick NYC? That's where we always got the highest prices for our best strawberries... if you can sell it there, you can sell it anywhere :-)

Thirdly, the environmental impact of large-scale farming would be significant in the Bahamas. The islands are long and narrow, the rock is porous, the freshwater lenses are thin. Whatever fertilizers and pesticides are applied will quickly end up in the ocean. I think the tourism and fisheries value of Bahamian waters far exceeds any gain that might be had from raising crops.

Here's hoping those agricultural schemes turn out to be nothing but hot air!

[Erik]

"...Bahamian pothole farmers..." LOL!

Good one, Larry!

[Earl Deveaux]

Your very well written article in today's Tribune is a telling example of my dilemma when you in particular tell me about leadership.

Perhaps more people will read what you write today than will ever hear the words I utter, or fail to utter; and will never know what I did today.

I cannot agree more with your analysis of the historical failures and the ridiculous notion of The Bahamas being completely self sufficient in food. However, there is very much we can do to grow an agricultural industry - forestry, trees, nursery plants, and a wide range of suitable crops - to provide more of what we consume.

I always look to Dade County, Florida as a example (Avocadoes, Beans, Cucumbers, Corn, Coconuts, Cassava, Okra, Onions, Strawberries, Dairy, Mangoes, Squash, Limes)

Dade County, Florida, generates more than a billion dollars in agricultural receipts annually, on on 85,000 acres of land similar to our pine rocklands, in a climate similar to that of The Bahamas.

You have written of the failures. Are there examples of success that can insire? Or are we forever doomed to failure?

Can Brazil teach us anything about agriculture? Florida? Taiwan? Israel?

Larry, your cynicsm is choking. You do not look for bright spots, but always to the dark failures.Yet you write so well

[Nanaqu2]

What can the government do to make the Bahamians interested in farming?

[larry smith]

Thanks for the compliments, Earl. Now for the criticisms...

I believe most would agree that our climate, land conditions and water resources are unsuitable for the growing of rice.

In addition, I understand this issue was investigated exhaustively by Israeli experts some years ago, with the conclusion that it was entirely unworkable.

So for the minister of agriculture to suggest to the press that we should think about growing rice to bring down the price of groceries is more than enough reason for cynicism.

The next thing you know, the government will be awarding rice subsidies to cronies and importing thousands of Chinese rice experts.

If you read between the lines of my article you will realise it acknowledges that farming can be successful here at a certain level. Look at the original Hatchet Bay Plantation, for example.

But political hypocrisy, ineptitude and interference only compounds the difficulty and cost of local agriculture.

Finally, the government has an entire information infrastructure at its disposal to get its points across - including a bully pulpit whenever and wherever it wants one.

I find it difficult to get a substantive response even from those politicos and senior officials who I know personally

[C.Lowe]

I remember my Dad blasting holes in the ground to crack the rock so he could plant fruit trees in our yard, so "pothole" farming is no joke.
I did the same when I moved into our house. The hurricanes(3) devastated a third of our fruit trees, and I have been unable to replace them due to poor stock quality and availability not to mention the time and rainfall needed to rinse the salt out of the soil. Fertilisers should not be applied after hurricanes either, as they are "salts" based as well. If every back yard grew food it would be a start but only for very localized consumption, the way it was back in the day.

[larry smith]

What can we do to make Bahamians more interested in farming?

I think the effort that was made in the 1970s at BARC was about the most we could ever do - and it ended in complete failure.

If food prices continued to rise maybe some of our small farmers will be able to generate more income and that might encourage m ore production.

[Ashok@Internet]

Very good article

[Lilly Knowles]

I think most Bahamians would like to see Senator Obama get fair treatment.

Hillary's detractors - Republicans Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity at Fox News - have succeeded in putting stumbling blocks in the way of Senator Obama.

Also the race card was played in several primaries such as in
W. Virginia and in Kentucky where voters acknowledged this.(Why do
Republicans want Hillary as their opponent in the General Election?)

The second obstacle is Hillary. How can they get through to her when she thinks she deserves to win above anyone else. How can one get her to go, please. Everyone has had to tread lightly in what they say to or about her. I think people would like to hear debate on the real issues instead of having to placate Mrs. Clinton because she is a woman and wife of Bill.

[Bob Knaus]

One more comment and then I'm done.

Growing up on the family farm in Homestead FL I learned there were two ways you could make a living at farming -- big or small. Medium farmers couldn't make it.

We chose small. We cut our strawberry acreage from 15 to 5, increased the variety and acreage of vegetables we raised, opened up a bakery, and added a milkshake stand. People drove 50 miles from Palm Beach just to buy veggies, drink a strawberry milkshake, and chow down on cinnamon rolls.

There is no way we could have made it as "small" farmers without being in proximity to a 2 million+ metropolis. The key to prosperity through "small" farming is access to a large market that is willing to pay a premium price for freshness, quality, and variety. Does the Bahamas have this?

I knew a number of "big" farmers in Dade County, and continued to service their computer systems until I was in my early 30s. I enumerated the reasons in my earlier comment as to why the Bahamas is unsuited to "big" farming.

And, trust me, "medium" farming is a sure way to go broke!

[larry smith]

Why is that Bob?

[Bob Knaus]

Larry, I said that would be my last comment, and you insisted on asking me a question! OK, I will answer :-)

"Small" farming is successful in one of two ways. It can support a retail business, as my family's farm did; or it can sell into a highly specialized wholesale market, for instance fresh herbs or berries. In the latter instance, the Bahamas is at a significant disadvantage versus Latin America due to higher labor cost.

"Big" farming (by which I mean hundreds of acres per farm) is successful when the farmer has efficient access to a large market. In Dade County, the big farmers either have their own brokerage operations, or (more commonly) they work through a co-op brokerage whose job is to know the wholesale market and to get the produce shipped out in as short a time at the best price possible. "Big" farming is an industrial operation. It features entrepreneurs who have a large appetite for risk and the ability to raise significant sums of capital. No need to comment on the Bahamian situation here.

The "medium" farmer is in a bind. He does not have the efficiencies of scale possessed by the "big" farmer, and his output would swamp the market for either a retail operation or a specialized wholesale niche. He either has to grow "big", or find the "small" niche that is highly profitable and makes him happy.

My own prejudices are evident in what I write. I grew up on a farm, and I couldn't wait to leave it. There is nothing glamorous about farming. It's hard work. Sometimes, it pays well. More often, it doesn't.

[Hope Bringer]

Somewhere out there is a great farmer, possibly a family of farmers with children to feed and who LOVE farming. Like many other farmers they have somehow lost everything due to their local government and a greedy, heartless bank. I would imagine such a group of farmers if given a chance to redo the Hatchet Bay Plantation would do a pretty good job.

I clearly remember my younger days spending summers in Eleuthera. We NEVER had any milk. The only meat was fish. All the eggs came from our personal chicken coop. So of course there was rarely any chicken meat.

[utopia products]

The info on agriculture was truly enlightening. I have a great passion for the agricultural industry in the Bahamas and would like to see it up and running. I know relatively nothing about growing crops. I would like to start by growing a backyard fruit and vegetable garden. How do I start, and where can I get more information about planting?

[sam]

I am passionate about manufacturing in Bahamas - period. I have toyed off and on with growing sisal in large enough quantities to actually manufacture it into various items as opposed to just growing and exporting as was done one hundred years ago.

I get that labor is expensive here, I get the gist of why The Bahamas, Turks and Caicos jumped ship onthe industry in the early 1900's. I came upon this article in researching this "whim".

At a first glance it seems like the perfect crop although unedible it is weather, drought and insect resistant, thrives in shallow/poor soil and once harvested properly has a very long shelf life. 2 year turn around time doesnt seem bad either.

2 Questions -

1. it needs lots of fertiliser - was it larry who mentioned the run off into the ocean - that's a reality that would need t obe addressed by whom I dont know

2.Who might be an authority that could tell me What grade of sisal we are capable of producing here orhave produced in this hemisphere

[Devon]

Good article... It is especially important to recognize the farming failures within an historical context... In that way, they serve as case studies towards the various practices from which future guidance may be obtained...

The problem of developing a sustainable Bahamian farming industry shouldn't be blamed on soil-type and climatic conditions... The use of scientific methods can allow due diligence studies that can determine land, infrastructural and technological requirement for various crop-types... and a crop of choice doesn't have to be food...

In the Bahamas, the cuasarina (suckering australian pine) is considered a nuisance by many but is among the plants with the highest caloric value... and has a relatively short growth time too... Its an invasive species because it likes the "naturally harsh" Bahamian climate more than most other plants... Imagine setting up cuasarina farms on lands that are otherwise idle to produce electricity via biomass gasification technology?

No farming difficulties, no marketing problems... just political will, legislative changes, and some brain to do it properly...

...It seem to me Larry that the political will has always been lacking as you have mentioned the BARC project that seemed to be well-intentioned but grossly mis-managed.

Its time to apply science and brains to agriculture and move from the traditional farming and crop models... and I'm not just talking greenhouses.