BY FRANCES CHANDLER

I NOTED WITH INTEREST and chagrin the proposal made by a company called Agricultural Investments Ltd, reported to comprise a number of individual companies, to buy Barbados Farms Ltd.

In my opinion the name Agricultural Investments is a misnomer, since agriculture, as far as I am concerned, is not foremost in the minds of any of the persons involved.

Judging from the condition of the plantation lands presently controlled by the head of one of the companies involved, it is difficult to believe that this person would suddenly promote agriculture on Barbados Farms lands.

Furthermore, I was listening to a radio interview promoting the same company recently in which the answer to a question as to what was in the pipeline after the present developments were completed, was a statement to the effect that "there is always more to come". Apparently land for development is unlimited in Barbados.

Although no one can deny that Sir Charles Williams is involved in agriculture, it would be interesting to calculate the percentage of the total lands owned by him or his companies, which is in productive agriculture.

Furthermore, until recently, Sir Charles was a member of the board of directors of Barbados Farms.

Used for housing

How come he could not use his influence as a director and also, as far as I am aware, the largest shareholder, to make the company more vibrant, but plans to do so after the purchase of the company?

It should be obvious to any clear-thinking person that if such a proposal succeeds, there would most likely be token attention paid to agriculture, while some of our best agricultural lands would no doubt be used for housing.

Although it should be possible to use the non-arable or "rab" land within plantation lands for housing, as has been done in the past, my experience is that placing modern-day residences in the midst of agricultural land inevitably is done at the expense of the operators of the agricultural land.

Residents often originate from urban areas and are not willing to accept the smells, sounds and other phenomena associated with agriculture. One usually finds that the farm operations are stymied by the likes and dislikes of these residents.

This fact was brought out recently on a radio programme where a resident was complaining about horses being kept on agricultural land that was adjacent to a number of residences.

I say: "If you can't stand the farm smells, stay out of the farmland," which emphasises the need for a firm land use policy which clearly delineates land for agricultural use and compatible operations.

Short-term gains

CLSS Holdings, a subsidiary of CLICO Holdings Barbados Ltd, has since entered the fray. CLICO claims that it recognises the important role of agriculture, which sounds good, but whether the talk and the actions will coincide is left to be seen since it did mention something to the effect that it would only take out from agriculture what was necessary, whatever that means.

It is true that it has left the lands it has already purchased in St John in agriculture, although it has allowed the plantation houses to fall into disrepair.

It is not obvious to me what it has done to improve the performance of the plantations it has already bought or the technology used on these plantations.

I invite those shareholders of Barbados Farms who might be considering selling their shares, to take a trip to the ridge north of Brighton Plantation and look south across the beautiful, peaceful, green St George valley, and decide whether they would like to see this land go into housing or remain in its present pristine condition, so soothing to the eyes and ears.

Then take a trip to St Philip and look at what is being done to Grove and Foursquare, two plantations which I am advised have usually made a profit from agriculture.

I hope that the shareholders would not fall prey to grabbing at short-term gains at the expense of the long-term sustainability of our nation and ultimately the welfare of their children and their children's children.

As shareholders they should be taking an active part in influencing and improving the performance of their company.

If this agricultural land is allowed to go into housing, I will be convinced that the policy-makers purporting to encourage food security, agro-processing and exports are figureheads and that the real power is in the hands of the officials of the Town and Country Planning Department.

l Dr Frances Chandler is an Independent Senator and agriculturalist.