Sugar cane thrust needed
A senior official in the Ministry of Agriculture is putting a case for Barbados to modernise and advance the local sugar industry.
Chief Agricultural Officer (CAO), Lennox Chandler, put forward the view as he delivered remarks at the Agriculture Ministry’s Romaine Lettuce Field Day event held at the CARDI Facility, which is located on the Ministry’s Graeme Hall, Christ Church compound. A very passionate Chandler told those gathered that despite the calls for the industry to be abandoned, he is of the firm belief that efforts must be made to advance the industry to propel it to a major revenue earner once again; boost agricultural production in general; and to create lasting linkages between the sugar industry and other sectors, including tourism. He made the point while contending that sugar cane is a critical product for the country’s agro-economic structure and must be embraced.
“Anybody who understands the food system in Barbados would know that sugar cane is almost a perfect crop for us and we need to have it planted in rotation with other crops. Therefore, I want to see a modernised sugar cane industry where innovation and science and technology are applied to the production of various products from the sugar cane.”
He added, “If Barbados used to produce grapes, I don’t know if we would have wine, or if we would just eat raw grapes and not try to figure out how to produce wine. We have sugar cane; try to figure out what we can do with the sugar cane and stop just trying to abandon it.”
Chandler alluded that despite centuries of growing sugar cane, Barbados has done little else than make products such as sugar and rum, failing to exploit the crop’s fullest potential. No efforts, he lamented, have been made to come up with other products derived from the cane which can be sold to the rest of the world, and as such, he called for Barbadians to put their heads together and come up with ideas on sugar cane by-products that can be put on the market.
“We’ve been talking about agro-tourism and people believe agro-tourism is only planting food and getting the tourists to eat in the hotel; we have a rich heritage based on sugar cane and sugar cane technology, why not marry the sugar cane technology and our industrial heritage with the tourist industry? When a tourist leaves Barbados he should be leaving with a bag of sugar, a small package of sugar, some cane juice, some molasses, whatever it is we have from sugar cane,” the Chief Agricultural Officer contended.
Chandler’s comments came as he said he also wants to see Barbados “planted up” with crops. Contending that too much land is lying idle and growing nothing but bush, the CAO said there is a need to clear this land and either plant food and/or rear livestock, especially small ruminants and rabbits. Chandler said that in particular, he would like to see focus placed on the Barbados Black Belly Sheep, putting talk into action to expand that aspect of the agricultural sector. (JRT)