Editorial | Agriculture’s opportunity in a time of crisis

According to the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and the World Food Programme (WFP), an estimated 2.75 million people in the English-speaking Caribbean, or 39 per cent of the region’s population of 7.1 million, suffer from food insecurity. That is, they do not have consistent, or reliable, access to sufficient, affordable, nutritious food to maintain good health. Of the region’s food-insecure population, an estimated 693,000, a quarter of the group, is severely food-insecure. That translates to one in 10 of the area’s citizens facing a food and nutrition crisis.

A notable aspect of these statistics, which are based on a series of surveys conducted by WFP and CARICOM since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, is that while the broad food insecurity problem remained largely the same over the past year, the number of chronically food-insecure people spiralled by 44 per cent. Further, the current figure is an increase of 72 per cent, compared to the number at the time of the first survey in April 2020. Then, just over 400,000 people, six per cent of the population, were deemed to be severely food-insecure.

While the WFP/CARICOM surveys did not provide estimates on the number of Jamaicans facing food crisis, it is well known that we have not escaped the economic ravages of the pandemic, which have been compounded by the global supply chain problems and the fallout from the war between Russia and Ukraine. Indeed, according to the survey, nearly half (47 per cent) of Jamaicans reported having, over the past year, significantly reduced their spending on food. And seven in 10 (72 per cent) said they had dipped into savings to meet food bills. Three in 10 (34 per cent) sold productive assets to pay for food.

NO SINGLE SOLUTION

Obviously, there is no single solution to the issues highlighted by these figures. Part of the answer, however, is the full recovery, and the sustained growth, of the island’s economy which plunged by 11 per cent on the onset of the pandemic. In that regard, recent growth numbers as well as the decline in unemployment, to 6.2 per cent – a rate lower than the pre-pandemic figure – is welcome. People who have jobs are better able to afford to purchase the food needed to sustain themselves.

But having money does not guarantee – as current global circumstances show – that there will be goods to buy, or, more critically, that they will be affordable. Global food prices, already on an upward trajectory in the wake of the pandemic, have skyrocketed since the Russia-Ukraine conflict, two major producers of grains and seed oils. Indeed, 98 per cent of Jamaicans, similar to their counterparts in the rest of the English-speaking Caribbean, report having faced rising food prices in the weeks before the January-February survey.

This situation, this newspaper continues to insist, adds urgency to the need for robust government initiatives that encourage agricultural output and enhance domestic food security. Indeed, enhancing regional agricultural production is among the recommendations of the WFP/CARICOM report.

The region, the document said, must look to “increase investments in agri-food systems, regional food production, productivity and trade, and develop targeted initiatives to resolve bottlenecks to import reduction”.

This is in line with an initiative, announced by CARICOM leaders at their summit in Belize in March, aimed at cutting the community’s food import bill (over US$20 billion) by 25 per cent by 2025 (25 x 25), to be kick-started by an agricultural investment forum and expo in Guyana this month. The community, though, has made similar pronouncements since the 1970s, with very little having happened. This time, hopefully, the region will get out of the blocks.

However, the success of initiatives articulated at summits depends, ultimately, on what happens in domestic economies and, thus, the policies of national governments. In Jamaica, the new agriculture minister, Pearnel Charles Jr, has spoken ephemerally of expanding and modernising agriculture – a sector that accounts for around eight per cent of gross domestic product and more than 180,000 jobs. But he has not articulated or published the policies through which he intends to achieve these goals – whatever they are. Neither has he brought, by force of personality, a sense of excitement or visionary zeal to the portfolio. He is not making agriculture appealing.

SOBER AND WORKABLE STRATEGIES

Perhaps the minister will outline very sober and workable strategies when he speaks in Parliament’s ongoing Sectoral Debate. Mr Charles has something with which to work in advancing a new agricultural initiative.

Jamaica’s annual food import bill is around US$1 billion, which, analysts say, could be reduced by up to a fifth, or more. The mouthwatering prospect is that around J$38 billion, which now fattens the accounts of foreign farmers, could be available for investment/spending in domestic agriculture and agro-processing.

Further, Mr Charles should be seeking to leverage the J$7 billion that the Government will spend this fiscal year on its school feeding programme, to boost domestic agriculture. As we suggested recently, all foods served in schools under this programme should be made with Jamaican and CARICOM-grown crops, unless an extremely compelling case, in a specific circumstance, could be made to the contrary.

Mr Charles should also be advancing the case for an end to the country’s best agricultural lands, including the island’s “most fertile A1 soils” at Bernard Lodge, on the St Catherine plain, being ploughed for the planting of concrete for new cities and related developments.