Director-General of the Inter-American Institute for Co-operation in Agriculture, Dr Chelston Brathwaite (right), presenting director of the Organisation of American States, Wendell Goodin, with a copy of his book during the launch on Wednesday. (AM)

AS BARBADOS CELEBRATES its 40th year as a nation and looks further towards becoming a world-class nation, there has to be a new approach and a new vision for agriculture.

Director-General of the Inter-American Institute for Co-operation in Agriculture (IICA), Barbadian Dr Chelston Brathwaite, said on the eve of the country's 40th anniversary of Independence that the country should not depend so heavily on food imports.

"I believe we need a new development model, a model that needs some rethinking; that we need to invest in the world sector and the agriculture sector; that we must see food security as central to our development.

"We must not leave our food supply to the whims and fancies of others; we must not necessarily import everything that we eat," he said.

His comments were made on Wednesday when he launched his book, The New Vision For Agriculture And Rural Life In The Americas, which contains 50 of his speeches. The launch took place at IICA's
offices in Chelsea Road, St Michael.

Brathwaite, who will serve another five-year term at the helm of the international organisation, also presented a report on his first four years in office.

Emphasising that agriculture was about food security, and food and food security are important, he added: "Fortunately or unfortunately, all of us still have to eat . . . because we have to eat in order to live."

He said there were some people who believed that food came from the supermarket, some from the refrigerator and others from heaven. However, he told the audience, some of whom received copies of his book, that it came from people producing it in fields of the world.

"Those who don't want to have anything to do with agriculture should stop eating. . . . If you do not support the farmers of your country to produce, you will support the farmers of other countries who are producing . . . . Those producers are some of the most important people in this world because the day that they stop producing we have a problem," Brathwaite added.

Therefore, IICA's director-general said, what was needed was a state policy, not a sectoral policy, for it was food that would answer questions like: "How are we going to supply the food we need in this way? What strategies are we going to put in place to supply a higher percentage of what we need? What are the incentives?" (DS)