By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Bahamian farmers would be able to "ramp up" production to supply 30-40 percent of this nation's food needs within three years if the government provides the necessary funding and support.

Caron Shepherd, president of the newly-formed Bahamas Agro Entrepreneurs Group, told Tribune Business yesterday that the COVID-19 crisis had highlighted the importance of domestic farming and the need to vastly improve this nation's food security to counter potential import disruptions.

Estimating that The Bahamas is meeting just three to five percent of its food needs from domestic sources, Ms Shephard said the pandemic had reinforced the case farmers had been trying to make to both the former Christie administration and its successor for more financial support and other assistance.

"This goes right back to 2016 when we had Matthew, and we went and agitated for the government to provide $60m," she recalled. "Even if they had done 50 percent of that we would be in a much better position than we are now, and farmers would have been able to sow more crops and we would be able to sustain ourselves a little bit longer.

"It comes back to what we were saying in 2017, 2018. I don't want to be the one to say: 'I told you so', but it comes back to that dilemma." Michael Pintard, minister of agriculture and marine resources, yesterday said The Bahamas has "adequate food stocks" in the short to medium-term.

However, he noted that several governments were mulling whether to reduce exports of particular foodstuffs their countries produce to conserve supplies for domestic consumption. There was also a slowdown in the harvesting, production and packaging of key staples due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with the UK and European governments already warning of a shortage of crop pickers for upcoming harvests.

Mr Pintard warned that The Bahamas "must prepare for what may emerge in this fluid environment". Ms Shephard, concurring, added: "This shows how important agriculture is to our society, and how important it is for us to diversify our economy so that we can be able to sustain ourselves.

"We can actually do it. We have a comprehensive plan we'd like to implement. What we're doing is selecting certain farmers to grow certain crops to the best of their ability, and others to grow other crops to the best of their ability, so we can have a crop rotation system. Farmers would be producing an abundance of crops year-round."

To achieve this objective, Ms Shephard added that it was critical for The Bahamas to develop/acquire temperature-controlled grow houses to ensure crops can be nurtured during the hot May-August four-month summer period.

Explaining that this was key to achieving year-round production, she added that the Agro Entrepreneurs Group has been working with a Caribbean-Israeli venture to put such facilities in place for 2021.

"We're only supplying a drop in the bucket. The percentage we're producing now is between 3-5 percent," she told Tribune Business of Bahamian agriculture's share of the country's near $1bn food import bill.

"Moving forward, once all the dynamics and mechanisms are in place we'll be able to increase that significantly. I would definitely say we'll be able to put a significant dent in that import bill to the tune of 30-40 percent if we're able to ramp things up. I would look at that target of between 30-40 percent.

"Everything hinges on funding. If the funding is in place I'm sure we'll be able to do that within 36 months or so. One of the main things is having the green houses and grow houses in place to be able to grow. When you lose that four-month window that's a big window in there that we're losing out," Ms Shephard added.

"Once we're able to get that window covered we should be able to do a whole lot. With egg and chicken production we have one of the farmers doing an awesome job, and he cannot keep enough eggs and chickens on a weekly basis. We have two to three other farmers interested in eggs and chicken. It just warrants the Government backing the farmers in being able to commit to moving in this direction."

Ms Shephard added that she and the Agro Entrepreneur Group were awaiting more details from Mr Pintard on how the Government plans to assist Bahamian agriculture, including the size of the grow houses and how he intends to distribute the likes of hydroponic green houses and seeds.

"We're yet to see or get more concrete details as to what's going to be done," she said. "How things are going to be distributed. I'm not sure exactly how that's going to pan out until we can actually speak to him. One thing I can say is that when we first approached the Government in 2016, 2017 and continuously in 2018 to let them know what the status is it fell on deaf ears.

"Farmers, as I have been saying before, are ready and willing to do what needs to be done to take agriculture to the next level. We've not had the funding, but the little resources the farmers have had they've been working with and turning things over."