The Bahamas Agricultural and Marine Science Institute (BAMSI) in North Andros is “a God-sent vision of the Prime Minister” according to one Bahamian farmer at a recently held farmers’ forum. BAMSI is a national initiative aimed at modernizing agriculture in The Bahamas and, once and for all, stemming the skyrocketing food import food bill, which is now in excess of US$1,000,000,000.

According to Dr. Edward Evans, Professor of Food and Resource Economics and Associate Director of University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences International Programs, this is certainly a step in the right direction and an initiative that all Bahamians will be proud of when completed and fully operational. Dr. Evans, who headed a delegation of 10 University of Florida professors covering a wide range of disciplines, recently spent two days touring the facilities and reviewing its progress as well as reviewing the agronomic conditions. The 10 professors included an agricultural economist, horticulturist, soil scientist, biotechnologist and plant tissue culture specialist, a weed scientist, a hydrologist, livestock specialist, forester, commercial vegetable specialist, and a plant pathologist. The opportunity also was taken to interact with farmers in Andros as well as farmers from some of the other islands.

Dr. Evans lauded the effort of creating BAMSI and expressed amazement at the progress that has been made since April of this year. He pointed out that while Government cannot and should not be expected to do it all, food security is a matter of national security and is too important to be left solely to the private sector. Government has a role to play in being the catalyst to spur rural development, and agricultural development in particular, by providing the enabling environment in which private sector will see fit to become investors.

It was noted by Dr. Edwards that with the global population set to reach close to 10 billion persons by the year 2050, food production will have to increase by about 70 percent to feed the increase in population. Experts have predicted that due to this situation, general food prices are expected to rise by as much as 90 percent over the coming years and, with the effects of climate change, prices could soar even higher. What is even more challenging is that globally there is only about 12 percent of unused agricultural land, most of which is marginal.

In this regard, Dr. Evans stated that it is shortsighted on the part of those who continue to define national food security as simply the ability of a country to purchase the foods it requires irrespective of the source. He warns that there is coming a time when foreign food supplies may be too expensive or simply just won’t be unavailable. As such, it is incumbent on every country to take steps to improve their level of food security by devoting greater effort to increasing domestic supplies. The only way this can be done is through a sustained effort aimed at modernizing agriculture. Agriculture is no longer simply digging a hole and planting a seed or fruit tree; it is now exclusively driven by science and technology.

Knowledge and related information skills and technologies will play a key role in the sustained intensification of agriculture. We have to be smart about how we go about increasing our food production and productivity while protecting our precious environment and natural resources. He opined that while the future is challenging, new technologies and markets offer new opportunities to farmers but will require changing some of the current agricultural practices in order to take advantage of these emerging opportunities. Globalization and international trade have placed considerable demands on farmers to become more competitive and more knowledgeable about technologies.

It is in this regard that the group of professors felt that BAMSI is such a forward-looking initiative that will have a tremendous payoff in the years ahead. Through its outreach program, BAMSI will ensure that farmers gain access to the information they need to transform their farming operations into modern operations. The training that will be conducted by the Institute will focus on encouraging young agricultural entrepreneurs to pursue farming careers by demonstrating how farming can be a profitable and lucrative business.

For farming to be sustainable, it also must be profitable. Efforts must ensure that farmers have a guaranteed market for their outputs, that they receive reasonable prices for their products, and that value chains are developed and strengthened. To this end, it is important to address tedious factors that have affected food distribution systems in the past, which is being tackled by BAMSI representatives.

The group of professors expressed the view that most of the soils and general agronomic conditions in North Andros were similar to what exists in southern Florida and as such much of the research conducted by the University of Florida can easily be adapted to local conditions. The Bahamas, they noted, is in a better position than Florida. In developing the Bahamian Agricultural Sector, they can avoid making some of the mistakes made by Florida such as not embedding agriculture within the natural forests. Finally, it was heartening to learn that while the Institute is physically located in North Andros, there will be programs on the ground in each of the agriculturally productive islands in The Bahamas to ensure that every island receives the same level of service. This national initiative will sustain the efforts to reduce the food import bill and achieve a greater level of food security in The Bahamas.