Productivity within the agricultural sector was among the issues highlighted during the opening of the Youths in Agriculture Summer Camp earlier this month.
The issue was raised by the Acting Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Rural Transformation, Colville King.
Mr. King noted that agriculture remains one of the key drivers of job creation, employment, export growth, and foreign‑exchange earnings.
Speaking on the sector’s performance, Mr. King noted that agriculture contributes between 3.5% and 4% to the national GDP.
He stated, "Our productivity is low, meaning we can grow this size of crops in this area. Let's say tomatoes: we're only getting about, inside here, about four thousand pounds; but if we do it better, if we reintroduce technology, and if we introduce better varieties and so on, we can move from four thousand to eight thousand. Productivity is about getting more for the same unit of land or for the same unit of labour and so on; that's a very important thing. Agriculture has about fifteen percent (15%) of the population involved in agriculture activities. Be it farming, be it marketing, selling imports etc. But guess what? In terms of contribution to GDP (Gross Domestic Product), meaning, for all the money that they make in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, agriculture is only contributing 4% to 3.5%. We have about 15% of the population, but we're not contributing 15%; we are only contributing four. We want to move that from about 4% to about 8%."
Discussing the issue of sustainability, Mr. King noted that younger persons are adapting more slowly to agriculture.
"Ministry of Sustainability, sustainability of the sector and in particular young people are coming into agriculture slower than older persons are going out. So you know what's going to happen, soon all of your food will come from outside because there is no farmer. You're going so slow that the amount of foods that are being produced locally can't meet the need here, so we can't export, we can't generate foreign exchange, we're going to have problems. So there are two issues that faces us: productivity and sustainability."
SOURCE: National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC Radio)
