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Agriculture is identified as
among the lead productive sectors in the Vincentian
economy, both in terms of primary production and
agro-processing/value-adding. Its development will
be based on a combination of private, cooperative
and state as the hub of economic activity within a
policy framework framed on the World Bank’s
definition of “good investment climate” that is,
“the set of location – specific factors shaping the
opportunities and incentives for firms to invest
productively, create jobs and expand”. The areas for
programmed investment in agriculture are
predetermined by the policy strategy outlined in the
Medium Term Economic Strategy where the government
is committed to diversifying the economy, including
the agriculture industry around bananas, through
strategic intervention and institutional
cooperation. This approach is intended to actively
create an enabling environment to drive
entrepreneurship among farmers, fisher-folk and
other stakeholder groups to significantly increase
agri-food production, processing, and marketing. The
outcome is to generate formal employment, rural
income, and improve food security and foreign
exchange earnings.
In 2004, gross agricultural output contributed
8.8% of gross domestic product (GDP), valued at
US$255.06. Agriculture is also important to the
continued development of rural areas, where
approximately 42% of the population resides, with
roughly 10% or 12,000 persons active in some form of
agricultural activity. Agricultural production is
also significant in ensuring a reasonable level of
the food security in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
A wide range of vegetables and fruits are emerging
as important export commodities, albeit with
seasonal, climate-related variability. Since 2004,
the sub-sector, along with root crops (dasheen,
eddoes, and sweet potatoes) experienced greater
share in the regional market. However, the
difficulties experienced in agriculture, mainly the
erosion of preferences and the consequent declines
in banana exports, has resulted in St. Vincent and
the Grenadines being classified as a net importer of
food, valued at US$37.8 million in 2003.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and
Fisheries Strategic Plan for Agricultural
Diversification and Development 1997-2006 is
currently being revised to chart the development of
agriculture and agri-business over the long term.
The revised document will focus on reducing risk in
new investment activities. The new agriculture will
be developed on a policy platform of agriculture
diversification around bananas. The policy points
towards the modernization and enhanced
competitiveness of the agricultural sector to
achieve the following policy objectives:
- Export development based on selected
commodities including fisheries and other
bio-products to generate foreign exchange
earnings.
- Food and Nutrition security through the
production of selected commodities including
fish and livestock production.
- Import substitution which involves the
production of special commodities and products
for import replacement, saving foreign exchange,
increasing linkages with the tourism sector,
creating employment and the development of
export base agro-industries.
The development challenges to the food,
agriculture and natural resources system in St.
Vincent and the Grenadines are no different from
other CARICOM states. There are clear synergies and
a dovetailing of the agricultural diversification
and poverty reduction strategies with the broad
objectives, priorities and strategies for
agricultural modernization and transformation, food
and nutrition security and reversing the trend in
food imports of regional, hemispheric and
international initiatives. Indeed, opportunities
exist for St. Vincent and the Grenadines to benefit
from the OECS Agricultural Policy Framework and
Strategic Plan, and consequently, the sub-regions
commitment under CARICOM’s Interventions to
Alleviate the Key Binding Constraints to the
Agricultural Sector (Jagdeo Initiative), the
Caribbean Fisheries Regional Mechanism (CRFM), the
UN FAO-led National Medium Term Investment Profiles
(NMTIP), the Summit of the Americas Agriculture
Agenda 2015 and the UN Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs), especially Goals 1, 3, 7 and Goals 8.
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1 Extracted from the National
Medium Term Priority Framework for FAO Assistance -
St. Vincent and the Grenadines Draft document, 2006
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