by TONY BEST

FLOUR SUBSIDIES in Barbados and elsewhere in the Caribbean are an acceptable interim strategy but aren't a permanent solution to the food price crisis sweeping the region.

What's really needed is a vigorous return to agriculture plus a regional food production plan that would put more Caribbean dishes on tables.

This advice comes from Byron Blake, a former top CARICOM economist who realised that Barbados and the Caribbean currently relied on costly imports from North America and Europe.

Blake, while sympathetic, has called on CARICOM leaders to launch a regional strategy that would put unused land into food production for the entire region.

"We must feed ourselves and the way to do it is to have a regional strategy," he told the SUNDAY SUN in a recent interview. "Subsidies are not long-term and are not sustainable for the simple reason that they can only be paid for out of the budgets, which are already under strain. But as an immediate move, this is one of the things that must be considered."

Blake believes governments should take an extra step by providing subsidies to farmers for what he called the "inputs" they need to increase food production, contending that without such help, they would be reluctant to grow more of the fruits, vegetables and other crops that would make a difference to people.

"Unless you can bring the input costs within reach you will not achieve a long-term solution. The long-term solution to the food crisis as well as to a part of the energy crisis is to place greater priority on agriculture and to put investment into agriculture."

The economist complained that far too many Caribbean poultry producers were relying on imported feed stocks instead of using local materials that were widely grown in the region and could be just as effective as the imported items.

"Almost all of our poultry production in the region is based upon basic feed stocks from the United States," he said.

Blake warned that the spiralling food costs would continue in part because of the reliance on "imported inputs" in Caribbean food production, putting them at risk of what happens in the external market.

The economist's comments have come at a time when CARICOM governments are facing increasing pressure from consumers to slow down the rising food prices.

Just last week there were food riots in Haiti which left seven people dead and millions of dollars in damage. In Trinidad, criminals hijacked two food trucks and Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday warned that unless something was done to halt price increases, more criminals would take the law into their hands.

Just last Monday Prime Minister David Thompson announced that the Government would be removing the subsidy on fuel. The subsidy that helped offset the rising cost of flour also ended on March 31.

"The most important and fundamental point we should be looking at in the Caribbean is that we are now treating an emergency situation. But it is really a situation that can and will occur when we abandon agriculture as a main plank of our economic development strategy," said the economist.

He described the regional governments' recent decision to remove the Common External Tariff (CET) on food as a "logical" emergency action which could help to ease the current situation. Subsidies on flour and rice were also seen as second and acceptable emergency moves because they were "vital to low-income families or people almost without any income."

However, Blake insisted that any fundamental action to solve the food price crisis in the region must include a return to agriculture and an increase in food production.

"That action may not yield us any food next month but it could bring results in the next three to four months, depending on what kind of things we encourage the production of," said the economist.