Author Archives: Andrew Stoute

About Andrew Stoute

Dr. Stoute obtained his PhD in Plant Biology from the University of Reading in 2009 working on photoperiodic control of flowering. He then took Post-Doctoral Researcher position at Rothamsted Research working on the developmental factors around parental regulation of seed size in oilseed rape (canola). He joined the staff of the West Indies Central Sugar Cane Breeding Station in 2011 as the Plant Geneticist, responsible for performing crosses from extensive germplasm collection to provide clients with improved sugarcane varieties. He also develops systems and programs to aid in the selection of the best parental material for those crosses.

A TSUNAMI OF HUNGER by Peter Webster

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The World Food Programme estimates that there are currently around One Billion undernourished people on Earth.

The Barbados Sugar Industry has reached a major cross-road with growers’ costs being way more than what they are receiving for their product. Sugar Cane farmers are incurring heavy financial losses and many have reached the point where they have no option but to cease cultivation. Furthermore, they realise that such a decision is almost irreversible as the additional costs to restart operations will be prohibitive. Experience throughout the Caribbean and elsewhere is that once sugar cane operations cease they are seldom ever restarted.

This likely cessation of sugar cane production in Barbados along with the concurrent reduction in food crops is occurring at a time when experts around the world are predicting a “storm in food prices” that could generate a “tsunami of hunger”. Food prices that have risen by more than 50% over the last decade could reach exorbitant levels with more and more of the world’s poor being unable to afford food. There is and will still be enough food to feed everybody but it is the high prices and unaffordability of food to the poor that results in hunger.

Food price increases are currently being driven by six causes. These are:

Increased demand through general population growth (the world’s population has more than doubled in the last fifty years) coupled with increasing food consumption which has doubled in the last thirty years;
Reduction in agricultural subsidies in developed countries as a result of pressure from the United Nations Congress of Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). These institutions have claimed that subsidies result in unfair trade in agricultural products (food). Unfortunately, it is not the subsidies themselves that have seriously damaged farmers in developing countries who have no support or protection, but the dumping of surplus food produced by the subsidies on the world market at prices that are below production costs. Cessation of the subsidies will not necessarily stop the dumping and in any case is occurring fifty years too late after agricultural production throughout developing countries has been seriously damaged;
Ongoing development worldwide has short-sightedly taken place mostly on agricultural lands reducing the availability of land for agriculture and ultimately depressing food production. That this has also occurred in other countries should not be a comfort to Barbadians. This reduction in available agricultural land has been balanced by improving technology (improved varieties and pesticides et al) that has resulted in increased yields and production. Unfortunately, this improved technology comes with a price tag that further adds to the production cost and increased prices;
The high cost of energy has inflated production and distribution costs while creating a demand for alternative energy sources which is promoting a switch from food production to bio fuels;
Developing countries’ inability to produce food after being damaged by cheap dumped food prices over the last fifty years is taking longer than expected and cannot be restored overnight. It will take many years for the “culture” and expertise that was formally handed down from generation to generation of farmers is recovered. One of the fallacies in the Caribbean is that almost anyone can be a farmer. In fact, project after project in the Caribbean (including Spring Hall Land Lease and the Land for Landless programme in Barbados) have shown that 80% of those who have tried farming have failed; and
Increasing conflict worldwide is not only hampering food production but more importantly is affecting food distribution. Such conflict is at a higher level than at any time since World War II (1944) and the looming global conflict between the Judean/Christian peoples and Islamists, which is prophesied in the Christian Bible, could prove to be a catastrophe for food distribution. Note: 80% of the Biblical prophecies have come to pass so far and none of the rest has been proven wrong!

Unfortunately, such “doom and gloom” predictions have been with us for a long time and are largely ignored by our leaders (political and economic) who are now immune to what they consider to be emotional arguments. They now need more tangible evidence before they will take action to make preparations to avert the hunger crisis for the poor. In other words the disaster has to actually happen before they will start – too late – to prepare for it.

Peter Webster

Note: Peter Webster is a retired Portfolio Manager of the Caribbean Development Bank and a former Senior Agricultural Officer in the Ministry of Agriculture.

Dispelling the myths by Frances Chandler,

My New Year’s resolution was not to “sin my soul” but I would have to become a recluse to achieve that. I have no axe to grind. I own no agricultural land, but I’m a Barbadian who knows the importance of agriculture and would hate to see it destroyed. So, my blood boils when I see both foolish and unfair statements about the sugar industry and about agriculture in general reported in various sections of the media.

First, my question to the moderator who says he doesn’t like agriculture. “What do you eat? Synthetic meals produced in a laboratory or foods originating from agriculture?” Then my response to the person who declared sugar cane wasn’t attractive to tourists and even bush would be preferable. As I recall, he suggested planting tobacco and cotton. Doesn’t he know that tobacco was among the earliest crops grown in Barbados and was discontinued because the quality was poor?

The poor quality was because the growing conditions weren’t right , with sea spray causing it to “crackle” when lit. I assume that’s why, in Trinidad, which is much larger than Barbados , tobacco was produced in the central part of the island. Apart from the fact that it would seem foolhardy to grow tobacco, considering its effect on human health, tobacco is an annual plant requiring soil cultivation each year .This would encourage soil erosion. Similarly cotton, although a valuable crop , is also an annual , so while our Sea island Cotton industry could develop if it were allowed to, cotton certainly couldn’t totally replace cane. Furthermore, if one considers the state of the cotton industry, replacing cane with it would be like “swapping a duppy for a dead”.

While the sugar cane picture is always clouded by continued emphasis on slavery, there’s no doubt that sugar built Barbados and the true sequence of events must be documented. Peter Webster’s article entitled “History , His Story and Twistory” in the last Sunday Sun should be compulsory reading for all Barbadians, but I will add my two cents worth, since, as he quotes Joseph Goebbels “if fiction is repeated long enough it becomes fact ” so we must dispel the myths being perpetuated.

To the person who asked Patrick Bethell to account for the “subsidies” to the industry over the last twenty five years let’s get it clear that government is just giving back a part of what they took away from the industry over the years for use in public projects. The importance of “saving for a rainy day” was recognised, so a levy, over and above taxes, was put on sugar production and the proceeds put in a fund to stabilise prices and improve factory and field operations. Unfortunately, these funds, ( $ 116 million between 1947 and 1979) were used by government for reasons unrelated to the industry . I can’t think of any other industry on which this “money grab” was inflicted.

But the most disappointing statement came from our Prime Minister. He noted that the payment to the industry was no longer an issue, yet the saga which has continued for months hasn’t yet been concluded. It seems he’s jumped on the Sandiford-Garner “non -issue bandwagon” . He also laid blame for the present state of the industry squarely on mismanagement by the private sector and said that government was “in the dock” although it was only involved since 1992 and asked where those in charge from the 1600s to 1992 were. Peter Webster dealt with that issue well. Admittedly, not all management “dropped out of heaven”, but the main fault of the owners, in my opinion, was not representing themselves more aggressively in the past.

The Prime Minister also stated that the private sector hadn’t put forward an alternative plan . One of our experienced moderators echoed this . An alternative which would’ve cost a fraction of what is now being proposed, and wouldn’t have involved any “finder’s fee”, was in fact put forward. This would’ve accommodated the gradual building of acreage to produce a number of marketable products (not including shipment of bulk sugar to the UK) but it wasn’t entertained.

Finally, I doubt whether any of the 51 persons running this country could manage the sugar industry, but I’m sure one or two in the industry could run the country.

Dr. Chandler is a former independent senator. E mail: fchandler@caribsurf.com

EAT BAJAN DAY by Basil Springer

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“Wisdom is supreme—so get wisdom.” – Proverbs 4:7

Once again, I join my fellow Trustees of the Graham Gooding Trust Fund in commemorating the late E.G.B. Gooding (1915-1987) who was born in Britain of Barbadian parents and was educated at Harrison College and Cambridge University. He was a botanist, agriculturalist, food technologist and environmentalist and I was fortunate to have interacted with him and benefited from his wisdom on many occasions on my return to Barbados in 1974. He researched and published extensively on the ecology and flora of Barbados.

He was an innovative thinker and made many an important contribution in the areas of food production, sugar cane diversification and agri-business. He worked unstintingly for conservation of the island’s natural heritage through the Barbados National Trust and the Government’s Town and Country Planning Advisory Committee.

The Graham Gooding Trust Fund gives an annual Graham Gooding Biology prize at the University of the West Indies in Barbados and initiated the concept of “Eat Bajan Day” as an activity that builds on his legacy. This year Eat Bajan Day will be observed on Friday, October 9.

People are our most important resource and have to be fed. Eat Bajan Day sensitizes us about the importance of local agriculture and fisheries to our health and wealth and to the planet’s future. The Trustees are encouraging all to try to use only local food and beverage for meals on Eat Bajan Day. But why stop there? We should continue throughout the year.

Locally grown agricultural produce is more easily quality controlled and gets from farm to table in a much shorter time than imported produce. Many locally grown products reach the consumer at a cheaper price than imported products and selected products provide our full complement of nutrients.

Agriculture is a science which guides farmers as they cultivate the soil for the growing of crops and the rearing of animals to provide food, both fresh and processed, and other products for local, tourist and global consumption. In the process, the massive agricultural import bill can be reduced and a contribution made to net foreign exchange earnings.

As the local agricultural industry expands, we can benefit from economies of scale. There is the potential to increase quality and productivity and decrease unit price leading to greater competiveness. Incidentally, I pose the hypothesis that praedial larceny will disappear with registration of vendors and farmers, the policing of the trade and reduction of unit price due to the expanded industry making it no longer a viable proposition for larcenists.

What are the results of our attempts at a comprehensive coordinated programme for agricultural development in Barbados? No change, primarily because of the high risks involved.

These risks are associated with the following:

(1) Corporate Governance – little or no focus on leadership and management to structure the foundation of the business; failure to observe legal and environmental laws reflecting society’s priorities or industry mandates; and a deleterious impact on the natural resource base.

(2) Finance – little or no focus on credit rating; and low equity input by the entrepreneur in the business.

(3) Marketing – little or no focus on cusumer satisfaction; no proactive aggressive market-led sales and distribution strategy; unrealistic sales projections especially for start-ups, re-births, spin-offs and scale-ups; and unpredictable prices and markets.

(4) Operations risk – little or no focus on profitability; use of low technology; variations in output due to weather, pests, disease and value chain logistics/timing; praedial larceny; lack of crop insurance; outdated ICT and administrative systems; and weak net cash flows.

(5) People – little or no focus on productivity; poor time management practice; the lack of passion, perseverance and patience in the entrepreneur; and selection, training and motivation issues centered around family members and employees.

In order to state and pursue a policy of sustainable economic growth, the first order of business is to get the governance right. There has to be a clear understanding of the difference between leadership and management. Leadership is about doing the right things and management is about doing things right. Leadership is about vision and management is about action.

According to Forbes Magazine (March 23, 2014): “Today’s market environment places a premium on speed, flexibility and the ability to lead in uncertain situations. At the same time, the flattening of organizations has created an explosion in demand for leadership skills at every level.”

In developing an economy, wise leaders in government and the private sector have important roles to play. The relative roles of the government and the private sector have to be clearly delineated.

The role of the government should be to lead change by stating the policy for agricultural growth and supporting such policy by providing a dynamic enabling environment within which the role of the private sector should be to manage strategy and drive business growth.

On the subject of Eat Bajan Day, I would like to take this opportunity to remember my own mother, Rita Springer SCM, who passed away in January 2013 at the age of 98. She too was an advocate for eating local and indeed was the author of “Caribbean Cookbook”, first published in 1968. Her cookbook was re-launched in 2008, enhanced with photographs of the dishes under the name “Caribbean Cookbook – A Lifetime of Recipes”.

You are invited to support the Trust’s fundraising fruit tree sale hosted by Carter’s General Store at Wildey on Friday, October 9 and Saturday, October 10.

May our agricultural leaders open their hearts to receive divine wisdom and act on it so that the people of this nation and our region can receive many more blessings all the days of our lives.

(Dr. Basil Springer GCM is Change-Engine Consultant, Caribbean Business Enterprise Trust Inc. – CBET. His columns may be found at www.cbetmodel.org and www.nothingbeatsbusiness.com.)

Eat Bajan by Frances Chandler

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Who would’ve thought that Trinidad, with all its oil and gas resources would ever be in trouble with foreign exchange? But it seems they put all their eggs in the fossil fuel basket and now oil prices have fallen, they’re in trouble.

It’s been said that Barbados has a much more diverse economy than Trinidad. But for how long? We seem to be continually downplaying most sectors and putting our eggs in the tourism basket, instead of moving all our sectors forward together.

Agriculture has certainly suffered at the feet of tourism when the two sectors should be partners in culinary tourism to keep more tourism dollars in Barbados. More players need to “put their money where their mouth is” and support local food. And of course farmers have to understand they must satisfy their customers’ demands. But sometimes these demands are somewhat unreasonable and always end with “at a reasonable price”. But how can you produce at a reasonable price unless your inputs are also at a reasonable price and your labour is productive?

Then there’s competition from imports. We seem to have signed every agreement possible in favour of other countries’ agriculture. Apparently, under these agreements, we can’t protect our own agriculture and we have to be competitive. How come big countries like Canada can protect their agriculture? I’m sure they’ve signed on to these agreements too. But they’re proud to say their produce is homegrown. And if there’s a hint of any negative change in regulations, their farmers don’t” take it sitting down”.

I was really impressed that our Prime Minister considered agriculture important enough to raise it at the recent Heads of Government Conference. Using his usual oratorical skills, he noted that “as leaders for the time being of our respective countries we must accept the solemn responsibility which devolves on our shoulders to raise the gaze of our people to new and hitherto unimagined regional horizons.

Nowhere is this more necessary than in the area of food security. For how much longer are we going to repeat that between the lands of Guyana, of Belize and now also of Suriname, we have the veritable breadbasket of the Caribbean?

Has the time not come, is the hour not upon us when we must, in a structured manner mobilize the idle hands in our region around the idle lands in our region and deal systematically with the food security issues we have been facing. If our palates are being held on mortgage by producers of food outside of this region, are we still justified in thinking ourselves genuinely independent?”

My let down was that Barbados didn’t get a mention. We’re small, but we have idle lands and no shortage of idle hands so can contribute significantly to our own food security if the issues raised earlier are addressed at a high level.

The Prime Minister also noted that “At the best of times our countries have been fiscally fragile and this crisis has rather cruelly exposed how vulnerable we are to exogenous shocks.” One of these shocks looming large is world shortage of food , especially in view of the worsening water situation in California (a major supplier of vegetables and fruit to the Caribbean) and the use of corn in producing ethanol, rather than food. We must prepare ourselves.

Someone commented recently “No-one can convince me that it is cheaper to bring in a foreign made refrigerated alternative across 6,000 or more miles by road and ship and for the wholesale distributors to always disperse them within the stated sell by date. There has to be waste and spoilage.” It’s quite evident there’s waste and spoilage which translates into a waste of foreign exchange. So we have to support the development of local agro-industries.

Recently, we’ve seen a fledgling cheese industry, but it needs support from government and consumers. We can’t have all types of imported cheese entering Barbados free of duty.

In short, we must all get on board if we’re to become more self sustainable. To this end, the Graham Gooding Trust is hosting its annual “Eat Bajan Day” on October 09. The Massy Group of stores is again collaborating by offering an “All Bajan” menu in their delis and Carters General Stores is hosting a sale of fruit trees on Friday 09 and Saturday 10 October. Let’s all support the effort.

Dr. Frances Chandler is a former independent senator E mail: fchandler @caribsurf.com

Say No to Cahill by Frances Chandler

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Last week both Houses of Parliament extolled the virtues of agitation ad nauseum. We heard the words educate, agitate but don’t violate over and over in relation to the National Day of Significance. But ironically, nowadays , those who peacefully demonstrate their dissatisfaction have been described as a mob and showered with disdain.

I agreed wholeheartedly with the march against the Solid Waste Tax since it showed that Barbadians were at last taking note of what was happening around them . Another serious matter which I trust they will be equally willing to vigorously demonstrate their dissatisfaction about, is the Cahill Waste to Energy plant. We must not allow concern over this “cloak and dagger” operation (metaphors seem to be fashionable these days ) and this dismissive treatment by government or Cahill to be a nine days wonder. Not only don’t we want the plant in St Thomas, we don’t want it in Barbados period.

With apologies for using what might be considered a vulgar term, the whole affair seems to have been conducted “ass backward'” and reeks of irregularities . The disturbing facts disclosed by the Opposition Leader in the Budget Debate are not figments of her imagination . Just look at the so-called private and confidential agreement which is now common knowledge.

How can you have a serious issue like this decided on and signed off by four members of parliament , apparently without the necessary authority, before it’s taken to Cabinet which is then asked to rescind a previous decision to go to tender for waste to energy facilities? Cabinet allegedly then agrees that the SSA should negotiate with Cahill regarding the setting up and operating of the plant.

After all these decisions have been made, then the matter is put to the public in a Town Hall meeting. Isn’t this an insult to our intelligence? Furthermore, we hear statements like” the deal is expected to be closed in August ” and “construction will start in September 2015”. What arrogance when we haven’t heard of any Town Planning permission or the results of any Environmental Impact study. The whole agreement seems to be skewed in favour of Cahill and has no regard for the wellbeing of Barbadians, present or future.

In my opinion, no Minister of government has the necessary qualifications to even understand the document. Certainly the Minister of the Environment ‘s psychology degrees and even the disputed theology degree wouldn’t help him much , but we’ll certainly need a lot of help from the Lord if this is allowed to happen. So can anyone tell me who government’s local advisors in the matter are (and if or how they stand to benefit from this arrangement) ? Is personal interest being put before the national interest?

We had the Greenland blunder , resulting from a total disregard of the opinions of knowledgeable and experienced people. While that blunder was a waste of money (albeit a drop in the ocean compared to the Cahill project), it did no permanent damage to our environment and could be changed into a wonderful eco-park tomorrow .

What is confusing is that the emphasis of the waste to energy plant has changed from waste disposal to energy production . Here again, as was noted at a recent meeting of the stakeholders in the energy sector, there needs to be one public (not secret) business plan for the production of alternative energy, led by government (not Cahill) standing shoulder to shoulder with all stakeholders . I agree with BREA that the responsibility of identifying new alternative energy projects lies with the Ministry of Energy, not the Ministry of the Environment.

One of the benefits of the Cahill project is supposed to be that the ‘ target of using 29% of total energy as renewables will be achieved 10 years earlier.” If I’m not mistaken it was noted at the renewable energy meeting that the target of 29% had already been reached in 2015, making this statement totally nonsensical.

This country seems to be spinning out of control. I agree with the moderator who said we need a bipartisan strategic plan for all sectors. This should lead to cohesive/harmonious development rather than the chaos we’re continually being subjected to. Of course we do in fact have a National Strategic Plan , but unfortunately this seems to change with change of government .

Dr. Frances Chandler is a former independent senator E mail: fchandler@caribsurf.com