Agriculture sector, centre could help reduce food import bill

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, Advocate - “IF you are importing $800 million in food, there must be opportunities to produce food; but if you want to eat New Zealand lamb, Idaho potatoes and Texas beef, then we have a problem. We will not survive if we continue importing, we have to produce more of what we consume in this country for the good of the economy, to save foreign exchange. Our estimate is, we can cut that food import bill by half in five years if we do what has to be done. But you can’t do it by believing agriculture is backwards,” charged Agriculturalist, Chelston Brathwaite.

Having received a significant gesture, a donation of 28 acres of land to the University of the West Indies to establish a Centre for Food Security and Entrepreneurship, Brathwaite believes that with research, greater opportunities for small farmers and more economical decision-making, the agriculture sector can be the answer to the high cost of living and high food import bill.