News Releases

Caribbean agriculture at the crossroads

For Release Upon Receipt - July 4, 2013

St. Augustine


ST. AUGUSTINE, Trinidad & Tobago – Pro Vice Chancellor and Campus Principal, UWI St. Augustine Campus, Professor Clement Sankat delivered the Sir Arthur Lewis/ Professor George Beckford Memorial Lecture to open the 30th West Indies Agricultural Economic Conference at the Hyatt Regency in Port-of-Spain on July 1st. 

Using the theme "Caribbean Agriculture at the Crossroads", Professor Sankat took a critical look at the state of agriculture worldwide, agreeing with Lester Brown of the Earth Policy Institute that “we are entering a new era of rising food prices and spreading hunger. Food supplies are tightening everywhere and land is becoming the most sought-after commodity as the world shifts from an age of food abundance to one of scarcity.  The geopolitics of food is fast overshadowing the geopolitics of oil. Armed aggression is no longer the threat to our future. The overriding threats to this century are climate change, population growth, spreading water shortages and rising food prices”.   

Professor Sankat, a Mechanical/Agriculture Engineer by profession, suggested that the reasons for this food crisis include population growth, urbanisation, the rapid development in East and South East Asia (China, India, the Philippines, etc.), natural disasters and extreme climate events like droughts and floods, rising oil prices, the conversion of food crops to biofuels, neglected support for science technology and innovation through research and development, and too few countries in the world involved in the global trade of staple foods.  He also indicated that, in such an environment, countries like Trinidad & Tobago and other Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are vulnerable and threatened by food shortages, noting that the region imports US $4 billion in food, resulting in many countries in the region being designated by the World Trade Organisation as “Net Food Importing Developing Countries” (NFIDCs).

 Some academics and institutions, he said, have been speaking about the "de-emphasis" of agriculture in the region. Principal Sankat strongly opposed the adoption of such a strategy, particularly if Caribbean countries were to build stable societies with the potential to withstand external shocks associated with food availability. He indicated that an appropriate strategy for agricultural development in the Caribbean would be one that recognises the new global realities of agriculture and its holistic contribution to development and strongly recommended a balanced strategy that recognises both the need for import substitution as well as agricultural diversification and the exports of products that could be described as uniquely West Indian in character. He shared several examples of such products including cocoa, coffee, nutmeg, tropical fruit, West Indian rums, herbs and spices.

 Such a strategy, Professor Sankat urged, should leverage agriculture’s role as one that is greater than farms and farming but that is at the same time a series of activities interwoven in the socio-economic fabric of our countries. He bemoaned the fact that the sugar industry in Trinidad & Tobago was shut down without giving the industry a chance to demonstrate to all the value of sugar cane and its derivatives in an integrated agricultural/environmental/industrial/ manufacturing/social context. The discontinuance of this industry has reduced this country's prospects for new and future exciting possibilities that could emanate out of sugar cane. He urged countries that were thinking of such exit strategies to be cautious as the full value of crops such as sugar cane and their contributions to an expanded agricultural sector have not yet been totally quantitatively ascertained.  

The Campus Principal spoke about the Jagdeo Initiative and the constraints to agriculture in the region. He noted that despite our acknowledgement of these constraints, countries and the region have been unable to date to remove these and establish a vibrant sector in the region. He urged that on the eve of the historic CARICOM Summit in Trinidad & Tobago, one which will restate our commitment to the Treaty of Chaguaramas, Caribbean leaders should walk the talk and work to remove all physical and technical barriers to agricultural trade in the region as a matter of urgency. Such action would unleash the creative potential of all peoples in the region with the possibilities for agricultural and enterprise development, enhanced income and employment, and increased food security. He also insisted that spending on agricultural research and development needed to be significantly enhanced as well, so as to be able to reap the rewards of increased productivity, food security, poverty reduction and economic growth, but also to allow us to unearth and exploit the new and unique possibilities for significantly enhanced value addition in areas that treat with healthcare, personal care etc. by exploiting our biodiversity, particularly the abundance of endemic species in the region. He suggested that regional institutions engaged in agricultural research should be coordinated and their outputs measured so as to ensure maximum impact. 

The Campus Principal shared approaches that could be used to woo young people into agriculture. He spoke of the work of the new Faculty of Food and Agriculture at The UWI and commended the Government of Trinidad & Tobago for its Agricultural Professional Development Programme, designed to train a new group of young agri-entrepreneurs. He pointed out that education, internships and mentorships were absolutely important ingredients to encourage young people into the food and agricultural sector, but that these efforts must also be supported with access to land, finances, labour, markets, and good physical and social infrastructure, particularly in rural communities. He encouraged the exposure of young people in urban communities to agriculture with a view to attracting them to get engaged, possibly in more rural settings.

Finally, the Campus Principal addressed the matter of shifting trends in the oil and gas sector and the possible impacts of these for oil and gas exporting countries like Trinidad and Tobago. He mentioned the rise in the availability and production of shale gas in the United States and other countries, the rise of biofuels, and the new alternative energy technologies that are gaining ground, all of which will reduce dependency on traditional oil and gas exporters. The future outlook from both a price and production perspective could therefore be challenging for countries like Trinidad & Tobago and hence presents an additional imperative to truly put diversification of our economy at the top of the agenda.  This must include the development of a "sustainable agricultural sector", one that has been strategically nurtured and is integrated into the matrix of our society.

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About THE UWI

Over the last six decades, The University of the West Indies (UWI) has evolved from a fledgling college in Jamaica with 33 students to a full-fledged University with over 40,000 students. Today, UWI is the largest and most longstanding higher education provider in the English-speaking Caribbean, with main campuses in Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, and Centres in Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, The Bahamas, Belize, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St Christopher (St Kitts) & Nevis, St Lucia, and St Vincent & the Grenadines. UWI recently launched its Open Campus, a virtual campus with 45 physical site locations across the region, serving 16 countries in the English-speaking Caribbean. UWI is an international university with faculty and students from over 40 countries and collaborative links with over 60 universities around the world. Through its seven Faculties, UWI offers undergraduate and postgraduate degree options in Engineering, Humanities & Education, Law, Medical Sciences, Science & Technology, Food & Agriculture, and Social Sciences. 

(Please note that the proper name of the university is The University of the West Indies, inclusive of the “The”, hence The UWI.)

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