Meeting Minutes


Meeting Date: August 27, 2009
Location: Finn Damtoft Agricultural Library

Strategic Priority: Youth in Agriculture

Objective: Network all agriculture stakeholders working with the youth of the nation- to encourage Agriculture.

Special Comments & Notations:
1. Comments from the Think Tank will be posted to the blog.
2. Encourage Careers in Agriculture
Follow Up Meeting Date &Time: September 24, 2009/4-5pm
Location: Finn Damtoft Agricultural Library

Meeting Minutes Attached
Plan Of Action: A Think Tank every last Thursday a month to discuss one topic


BNYC – Bahamas National Youth Council
BAFY – Bahamas Agricultural Forum for Youth
CAFY – Caribbean Agriculture Forum for Youth
IICA – Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture
BAPA – Bahamas Agricultural Producers Association
BNT – Bahamas National Trust
MAMR – Ministry of Agriculture & Marine Resources

Meeting Notes:

The meeting was started with a welcome, prayer (by Mrs. Telle) and introductions around the table.

First topic introduced - Diversifying the Bahamian economy with Agriculture

Astrid Cleare – Agriculture is good for diversifying the economy with a view to Agro-tourism and networking the stakeholders in the industry.

Alesha Hart – working ground level / how successful are we: strategies, effectiveness, feed ourselves, rapid assessment, and goal setting. Circulating information reports on research that has been done?

Paulette Ingraham – BAPA has done a rapid assessment of the local industry – it is not ready for public consumption. The study/project is focusing on linking agriculture and tourism (accessing the local market). The project will end this year.

Pericles Maillis –
· Told the story of the Mangoes going on Jets in the 1960’s to Harrods in London
· The Botanic Gardens had 1,000’s of improved trees
· There is a need to prune the mango trees after a hurricane (e.g. Eleuthera)
· There are reports available on many crops
· List what is happening with EPA and the Free Trade agreements
· These are hard economic times
· Agriculture can diversify the Bahamian economy
· When a tourist eats here that is an export dollar
· Generation that likes agriculture
· Sell $30,000 worth of mangoes this year at Maillis farms direct to customers and vendor wholesalers
· Produce exchange – for the small farmers/keep life in the Out Islands

Alesha Hart – Grandmother in Cat Island is growing tomatoes. Many crops are rotting at the packing house – it needs to be managed effectively.

Paulette Ingraham – Backyard farms produced food for consumption and for jams, bottling and canning (e.g. Bottled tomato and pickled onions) – which is what Cat Island can do. We need to help ourselves. Develop small family properties – like cooperatives. We used to feed ourselves at home and never bought vegetables (grew all in our backyard).

Second Topic introduced - Creating new Cottage Industry with Value-added products (e.g. juice, jam, sauces, ham roasted with native woods)

Joan Telle – Marketing of the agricultural products e.g. sun dried tomatoes or olives (Europe). Get the chefs or gourmet restaurants. We have the brain power. People become discouraged even though they love agriculture. Marketing focus.

Paulette Ingraham – BAPA’s study is looking at marketing and slowly mobilizing now. Part of the study targeting buyers and getting produce to market. Take buyer to the farmer work as a team. There are farmers’ cooperatives. Need group work to do more and there will be a roll-out by the president (Mr. I.G. Stubbs). A secretariat for information is being formed.

Pericles Maillis – Cooperatives have collapsed because of stealing and dirty politics. All have failed. There is a need for law reform. We used to work together e.g. asues, burial societies.

George Carey – grew up on Sims, Long Island. The Centre that used to be there is now closed and there are discouraged persons on the island. Needs to start from the top (incentives / duty-free / policies).

Astrid Cleare – Cooperatives active to-date: North Abaco Fish Cooperative, Abaco Agricultural Cooperative Society, Grand Bahama Agricultural Cooperative Society, Cat Island Cooperative Society and there may be a reviving one in Mayaguana.

Pericles Maillis – most of these are fairly new.

Tim Hauber – collapse of the Livestock Co-op.

George Carey – Concerned about access to land and farmer’s insurance (an issue for the Family Islands).

Tim Hauber – There is a long tern study currently being done on Agriculture Insurance. There is a risk in this industry. E.g. in the Banana industry the farmer pays 20% to cover their crop – few farmers may be able to afford this. Possible other topics: buy Bahamian, standards.

Pericles Maillis –
· 600 BC Hassid – the way of the farmer
· Thin out mangoes
· Live with the risk
· Came to Nassau from Long Island to look for land?

Tim Hauber – Land available from BAIC for a $25 acre lease. All supplies and seeds can be brought in duty-free (have to be a registered farmer) and the government is chipping in by giving a subsidy via the fish & farm store. Technical support provided by IICA (checkout out the website – www.iica.int) and lots of information can be found on-line via the University of Florida Extension site (check out their website - http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/). We should not expect the government to give information. Their focus should be on policy and we can take the practical side. Information is pretty easy to get.

Pericles Maillis –
· Praedial larceny should have the cat-of-nine-tails to punish for this.
· Look back in history:
· Denmark – the Vikings came and were Christianized then became farmers (grew grain) and fishermen (church instituted eating fish on Friday and Wednesday). See: History of Denmark http://pip.dknet.dk/~pip261/denmark.html#Agriculture
· Railroads and canals put into the mid-west (Ohio and Illinois). The price of wheat and corn crashed after 1,000 years in Europe when cheaper grain could be imported from the mid-west/prairies.
· What they did in Denmark – they created a Think Tank of everyone – scientists and farmers. They looked at the culture and came up with a focus on Diary (butter/cheese) and Pork. They stopped growing wheat (etc.) on a large scale and built the Danish product/brand using a co-op system where the co-op owned the machinery and factories.
· Mango – can produce to slice and freeze, dried mango, canned and fruit rolls. Our dream is to plant 1,000 trees producing around $100/tree. Currently the farm has 400 trees, 40 varieties.
· Looking now at the caramabola to produce drinks (Tropicana Bahama)
· Ornamental trees can be grown with the mangoes in plastic bags that allow the roots to grow.
· We are part-time farmers, like the old soldiers who were given land. Family farms could be developed if e.g. 30 persons give $100/month for development
· Go through pour own culture: Geneva Cartwright – Deadman’s Cay / Andros – produced Cassava Flour
· Economic history of the US – their patriotic zeal where they used us made products – BUY AMERICAN. Encourage our people more than the merchants (who buy dumped crops and make a killing) – buyer security. Gave example of Mr. Albury’s cucumber crop being sent back from Florida to protect the Florida farmer/market.
· Buy Bahamian!!
· E.g. Jamaica (check out their website - http://www.moa.gov.jm/) – eat what you grow and grow what you eat and Trinidad & Tobago (check out their website - http://www.agriculture.gov.tt )