Agriculture stakeholders make recommendations to Government to grow the industry

Several recommendations have been made to the government by farmers, fisherfolk, agro-processors, hucksters, hoteliers and other key agriculture stakeholders on measures to strengthen the value chain to promote food security and achieve sustainable growth in the agriculture industry in Dominica.

During a Value Chain Stakeholder Consultation held at the Goodwill Parish Hall on Wednesday evening attended by Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit and other members of Cabinet, veteran farmer, Hilary Shillingford stressed that agriculture which he labelled the ‘lifesaver of our country”, has a role to play in the growth of the economy.

He believes that Dominican farmers can be protected if the government increases the tax for importing agricultural produce, similar to what is done with the Irish potatoes.

Shillingford also called on the Dominica Export and Import Agency (DEXIA) – the organisation formed to lead the development of Dominica’s export sector focusing on agriculture and agro-processing- as well as extension officers, to “pull up their socks.”

“The Minister of Agriculture need to step in and ask the lazy extension officers we have out there to get work to do,” he stated…”I believe DEXIA, the extension officers, they have failed the ministry of agriculture…you will find one or two of them that are good but generally, you don’t see the others; you don’t hear from them. They give no advice.”

Shillingford warned that if immediate action is not taken, “agriculture will go nowhere.”

The Salisbury farmer also urged the government to address the lack of fertilizers on island as well as the high cost which he said is a major setback for local farmers.

Manager of D Smart Farm, Dawn Francis who’s also a consultant in the agriculture sector, noted that support should also be extended to the extension officers to enable them to do their jobs.

“While farmers are tooled and equipped, the support system for the farmers also needs to be appropriately tooled, and equipped. The extension officers, they require vehicles; they require incentives. Some of them do require retraining,” she said. “ Within the Ministry of Agriculture, there should be some sensitization information where a declared role of the extension officer is defined because sometimes you find that the farmers go to the extension officers for everything.”

A key area she noted that will also advance the sector, is that of education and training and proposed the idea of introducing short courses in agriculture and marketing of agricultural produce at the Dominica State College (DSC).

Pig farmer and senior employee in the ministry of agriculture, Dr John Toussaint called for a closer relationship between DEXIA, the marketing arm of Dominica’s agriculture sector and the Ministry of Agriculture – the production arm of agriculture.

“The linkage is critical. If we don’t have this linkage, we will always have this shortfall in agriculture,” Dr Toussaint said.

Among his other recommendations is the need for a processing company in Dominica that can purchase and convert the unsold produce such as dasheens and plantains into chips, to help address the wastage which so many farmers complain of.

Recommendations also came from a livestock farmer who raised the need for farmer’s insurance locally. He highlighted the killing of their goats by wild dogs as one of the many issues which farmers in the Laplaine constituency face.

He was also among the many who raised the need for the decentralisation of the livestock division.

Adding her voice, chicken and livestock farmer Singoalla Blomqvist-Williams asked what measures will be taken by the government to assist farmers with the increase in the price of animal feed so that they can continue to operate in the market. She said the focus should be on food security to include the production of good quality chickens, for example, in order to “keep our people healthy” and “spend less on the health bill.”

“When we get that third class on fourth class, chicken from America, it isn’t the best thing with all these hormones that we are injecting in the chicken. So I’m imploring you, the government, you represent us. How are you going to assist the farmer to be able to be the producer to be able to feed our people?” Blomqvist-William questioned.

Unless the issue of farm access roads is addressed, agriculture and farmers in Dominica will continue to be at a disadvantage, farmer, Moises Pendeque cautioned.

According to Agro processor and exporter Olivia Morris, as recently as last month, Dominica lost a major market in Antigua to St Lucia and Santo Dominica where a container of 300 boxes of banana, 50 cases of plantains, dasheen sweet potatoes and other produce was being shipped weekly. Among the reasons for that, she said, were the inconsistency of  supply and the pricing of the produce.

Concerned huckster Mandy Benjamin also pointed out that the seasonality of production of such crops such as avocados, is causing Dominica to such trade in competitive markets. She called on the government to make an investment in root and tree crops which will enable farmers to produce such crops year round.

With regard to the fishing sector, Fisherman Henderson Johns hopes that the issue of fuel can be addressed and the government can introduce a gas rebate for fishers. He says due to the size of his engine, he uses an average of $600 per day on the water and believes one possible solution is for government to donate bigger boats to the fisherfolk to enable them to stay out at sea for up to a week.

Hoteliers, Jerry Loyd (Atlantic View Resort ) and Sam Raphel (Jungle Bay) also added to the discussion, making key recommendations on ways to advance the sector.

For his part, Lloyd proposed the rebranding of the agriculture culture by way of food festivals, pineapple festivals, mango festivals and a farmer’s fete.

“Let us marry entertainment with farming so that we can create an entirely new culture, rebranding farming and the food and properly brand the product,” he said.

Meanwhile, Raphael issued a call to the farmers to increase the variety of the products which they produce.

“We need high-quality things, especially related to vegetables, a variety of vegetables, maybe things that aren’t consumed by Dominicans all the time…the people are coming to explore, so let’s give them a culinary experience with lots of colourful vegetables, as well as fruits, we have some things but we can grow a lot more…the more variety you have, the more you help us in tourism, the more we can help you,” he said.

In the end, the Prime Minister promised that his government would consider the recommendations from participants and appoint a working group to champion the priority actions agreed upon.