Sector’s impact not being reported

A lot of things are happening in agriculture in Barbados but somehow they are not being captured in statistics relating to the sector’s contribution to the economy.

Ms. Ena Harvey, the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation (IICA) Representative in Barbados, laid out this shortcoming during an exclusive interview with the Barbados Advocate.

IICA is a specialised agency in the Inter American System and provides technical and other assistance to member states in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Ms. Harvey, who attended a workshop dealing with cooperation between Argentina and the Caribbean, said that there is a need to change the methodology in assessing Agriculture’s contribution to GDP, and factor in a lot more of what is taking place in agriculture.

She said with the present system one does not hear about the downstream activities like agro-processing, jobs, the social aspects of the economy, the linkages with tourism, contribution to the small scale producer, the environment, you don’t hear about those contributions …,” she declared. All you hear about is sugar and non-sugar agriculture.

Ms. Harvey pointed to a method known as the Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) which is used by the tourism industry to account for its importance to the economy. “We don’t hear about that for agriculture, which is not given the full treatment,” she declared.

The IICA official said that tremendous work continues to be undertaken in Barbados and in the Caribbean with local commodities like sweet potatoes, yams, cassava, and breadfruit creating new products from them. The same thing goes for the black belly sheep, and she acknowledged also that several persons have been trained in the various disciplines of the sector. Some of them are engaged in producing new products as well.

The IICA official maintained that when people talk about agriculture they are still talking about the fields and production of raw materials, but nothing about the agri-food sector.

“When you look at tourism there is, for example, a report put out every year by the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) which shows the economic linkages of tourism with the rest of the economy, and the true contribution of agriculture in some countries,” she remarked.
She admitted that as an agency they cannot always boast about the projects, the training and the research that have taken place and which are continuing.

According to her, the IICA is working closely with other agencies like the FAO, UN Women, and UNDP, to make impacts on the ground with respect to climate change, smart agriculture, family agriculture, and working with the youth.

She said that every year the agency runs a youth farm programme, in association with the Ministry of Agriculture, providing certification for over 130 students, some of who have found permanent employment in the private sector.

An IDB project called Impact was recently concluded. That programme dealt with competency based training for over 200 participants. They were also certified in crop production, agro processing, rabbit production.

“In the area of compliance with Sanitary and Phyto Sanitary (SPS) measures, we have looked at legislation for plant and animal health, fisheries and food safety, across all 15 countries of the region,” Harvey said.

“We have also looked at national and regional coordination in the areas of management for food safety and we have trained over 3 000 persons over the last three years,” according to her.

“All over the region there were projects taking place,” she added. (JB)