CaFAN Newsletter Issue 4

November 08

CONTENTS
Editor’s Note ………..………………2

Facilitating the Caribbean

Farmers’ perspective……….…...3

CaFAN, a vehicle towards

regional food security …….…….4

Leading the way to regional

Unity ………………………………….…5

A call for Guyana to rejoin

Trade, an Agricultural Lifeline CARDI …………………………………..5

Home and backyard

Most of the food that is eaten in the English speaking Caribbean is imported from Gardening …………………………….6
outside of the region. Caribbean farmers feel that this foreign exchange drain could
be dramatically reduced in CARICOM countries, if there is greater domestic Bahamian Farmer rises to the
consumption of their produce and greater intra regional trade. challenge ………………………………8

Members of the Caribbean Farmers Network (CaFAN) are seeking to initiate Bellevue Farmers’ Cooperation
discussions with operators of schooners to devise more efficient strategies for strengths tourism link …………..9
agricultural produce to reach regional markets. The region’s farmers feel that intra
regional trade could be an agricultural lifeline. Rather than purchasing canned and Christiana Potato growers
fresh vegetables from outside of the region, the respective regional countries could maintaining its tradition ….….10
fill shortages by supplementing domestic production with imports from neighboring
countries. CaFAN strengthens relations
with COADY ………………………..12
The region’s farmers in noting a definite need to enhance intra regional
transportation and at the same time reduce financial costs and enhance efficiency, Hydrogrow shows… Technology
explained that there is also a need for lobbying of policies relating to intra regional is the way to go! …………………13
transportation at the respective national levels. CaFAN farmers’ leaders within the
CaFAN Signs LOA with FAO …14
network believe that in order to capitalize on the potential benefits of the EPA,
Caribbean farmers have to become familiar with the agreement including the Rules
A Vision for the region’s
of Origin.
Future …………………………………15
CaFAN members feel that the organization is in an ideal position as a regional body
to determine what kind of assistance is necessary for Caribbean farmers to reach the
EU requirements on a regional instead of an individual basis.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Managing Editor: Jethro Greene | Administrative Support: Nyasha Durrant | Compilation, Editing,
1
Design and Layout: Pet Secretarial Services | Communication Consultant: Jeff Trotman
Caribbean Leaders and the region’s negotiators have shown weaknesses in finding
common ground on the way forward as a community in this dynamic world of
international trade. This is exemplified by the uncertain, often selfish and uninformed
stances taken by CARICOM member states to the impending signing of the contentious
Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with Europe.

It is a timely coincidence that this issue of Agrivybz pulls a substantial proportion of its
content from a successful Agricultural Trade Facilitation Workshop, which was held by
the CaFAN at the Blue Horizon Hotel in Barbados, from the 27th to 31st of July 2008.

The workshop was attended by over thirty farmers’ leaders from thirteen Caribbean
countries and aimed at generating and sharing ideas that would help to foster greater
intra and extra regional trade, while improving linkages of agriculture to Tourism,
Health, Value Addition and Food Security within the respective CARICOM member
states. Being describe as a success, the workshop hosted participants who all engaged
themselves fully and purposefully in all aspects of its proceedings, in an effort to achieve
common ground on the way forward for the region’s farmers, irrespective of which ever
territory they till the land.

It seemed that this grass root level “CARICOM Summit” was made up of persons with
more commitment than what is perceived of those who engage in the region’s highest
annual talk shop.

However, while the region’s farmers and farmers’ organization close ranks to empower
themselves and to be more resourceful in facing the myriad challenges they face locally,
regionally and internationally, the time is now for our region’s governments to stop
playing token lip service to agriculture, and garner resources towards real agricultural
development.

That Caribbean farmers can only surmount the challenges they face by receiving
genuine support and assistance from CARICOM and the regional governments is more
than a cliché; it has become a truism.
The Caribbean Farmers Network
(CaFAN) held an Agricultural Trade
th
Facilitation workshop on the 27 to
st
31 July at the Blue Horizon Hotel,
Barbados. The workshop was funded
by the Technical Centre for
Agricultural and Rural Cooperation
(CTA) and catered for over thirty
representatives from farmers’
organizations from thirteen
countries, including Belize, the
Bahamas and Suriname.

The workshop was aimed at

generating and sharing ideas that
would help to foster greater intra
and extra regional trade while
improving linkages of agriculture to
Tourism, Health, Value Addition and
Food Security within the respective Participants at the Agriculture Trade Facilitation Workshop
CARICOM member states.

The fulsome contributions of the
participants prompted Jethro
Greene, Chief Coordinator of CaFAN,
to declare that the purposeful
approach of the participants to
achieve common ground for the
region’s farmers was testimony that
farmers’ organizations within the
region and their representatives are
more conscientious in achieving
regional integration than the
Caribbean politicians. He recognized
their commitment beyond
themselves as just making money,
but to the greater good of the
Caribbean and their community.
The farmers in the region are faced
with challenges that could only be
surmounted with assistance from
government and multilateral
agencies.
“What we need now is the technical
expertise and the technical support
from our partners to help us meet
those challenges,” Greene said, as he
expressed hope that the Barbados
government would support CaFAN.
“CaFAN would be taking up the
challenge and the promise of support
by the Barbadian government and
expects Barbados would take a lead
role in pushing CaFAN at the regional
level. We’re expecting strong
support by our three parliamentary
colleagues to ensure that the
Barbados government takes a lead
role in pushing CaFAN, but we must
come up with sound policies, sound
projects, sound ideas that make
sense, and I know we will do it.”
Greene went on to state that
challenges must be accepted, people
must be engaged and changes made
little by little.
“CaFAN”, he said, “has the right
attitude, the connections and a lot of
determination”.
Greene concluded, “At the end of this
whole process, we have to lay the
foundation for good agriculture for
our children; the next generation.
What we do here today, history is
going to record either positively or
negatively. I am convinced beyond a
shadow of a doubt that CaFAN would
be recorded in history in a very
positive way and that when the
curtains of history are drawn, CaFAN
as an organization would be
applauded and you, the leaders here
would be applauded.”

The official opening ceremony which took place on Monday July 27th heard remarks and addresses from Senator the Honorable
Haynesley Benn, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development; Honorable Christopher Sinckler, Minister of Foreign Affairs,
Foreign Trade and International Business; Ms. Elsa Fenet, Head of Regional Integration, Political, Trade and Press and Info of the
Delegation of the European Commission in Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean; Cleve Scott, Project Officer of Oxfam GB; Claudette
de Freitas, Head of Information Management, CARDI; and James Paul, CaFAN Director and member of the Barbados Government.

3
CaFAN, a Vehicle towards Regional Food Security
“We have to do it as a region… ”
President of the Agricultural
Society of Trinidad and Tobago
(ASTT), Mrs. Dhano Sookoo, is of
the strong belief that we must
come together as a region if there
is to be real agricultural
development and food security in
the region. Mrs. Sookoo, who is a
director of CaFAN, is adamant that
no longer can we do it as individual
countries faced with the many
challenges that are out there within
the Americas and the European
Union.
“We have to do it as a region and I
see CaFAN as that vehicle to take
us where we want to go. No longer
will CARICOM listen to the
Agricultural Society of Trinidad and
Tobago but to CaFAN, being the
representative body of sixteen
member states and it must be
positioned and made to utilize its
capacity to incorporate the entire
region. We need to do that to enjoy
food security in the region.”
She said that Trinidadians are
accustomed to importing most of
their root crops and have enjoyed
very good relationship with St.
Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG)
in this regard. She recalls sitting
down last year in a meeting with
the Vincentian Minister of
Agriculture and a delegation from
SVG to discuss regional trade,
which discussed the need to
develop a regional food security
plan.
“If St. Vincent is very good at
producing root crops, (dasheen and
yams) then let us assist St. Vincent
in developing that industry,” Mrs.
Sookoo argued. “If Barbados is very
good at producing lamb to supply
the region, let us assist Barbados in
its production of lamb for the
region.
Trinidad can produce vegetables;
and we have done it in the past
years – we have done well with
watermelons and cucumbers, we
have done well with citrus. In fact,
we have the best citrus in the
world. Then let’s encourage our
farmers in Trinidad to produce in
quantity that can feed the region.
And if Guyana has the vast amount
of land and water, let’s encourage
Guyana to produce enough rice to
feed the region. It’s a perfect
example of growing and producing
for our needs.”
“These are some of the issues we
are trying to bring to the
government and hoping through
CaFAN we can deal with some of
these issues at a regional level and
get the regional governments to
understand that agriculture is a
regional thing. It is no longer a
country thing; that food security is
now a regional thing and we must
come together as a region if we
really need to address this food
security that we have found
ourselves in.”
Mrs. Sookoo began her tenure as
ASTT President and Chairman of
the Board of Directors in January
this year. While noting that ASTT is
the umbrella organization for the
twenty thousand plus farmers in
Trinidad and Tobago, she said that
it has almost 5,000 financial
members.
Although she modestly claims to be
“a pretty successful livestock
farmer”, Mrs. Sookoo rears 27,000
chickens and exports fresh
vegetables to the region with
Barbados being her main market.
She also exports to St. Vincent and
the Grenadines as well as further
afield to the United States, but
concentrates on the regional
market, “because there are less
trade barriers and sometimes the
prices are better in the regional
markets than in the US”.
4
CaFAN leads the way to Regional Unity
Jethro Greene is convinced that the
members of the CaFAN network are
more committed to regional
integration than the region’s
politicians.
In his opening remarks at the
Agricultural Trade Facilitation (ATF)
workshop, Greene exhorted
participants from thirteen Caribbean
countries to show unity in their
actions to back up the resolve they
have shown individually and
collectively over the past ten years
when services were given priority
over agriculture.
A section of the audience at the opening ceremony of the ATF workshop
According to Greene, the current
global concerns about food shortages
and rising food prices have triggered
“so-called agriculture institutions and
private sector people, who are now
piggy backing on agriculture, trying
to make a quick buck out of it”. He
stressed, “They’re not going to ride
on our backs now. That’s why it is
very important that during our
deliberations, we show unity in our
action and we let everybody know …
that we are right.”
He said that CaFAN should be proud
and happy that the CaFAN family has
struggled as one and is still here,
people are going to recognize CaFAN
as one of the major voices of
agriculture in the West Indies.
CaFAN came together and are better
than the politicians; the politicians
can’t agree on anything, so CaFAN
will lead the way on regional unity. “I
have no apologies to make because
we have been struggling for too long
to be nice. We have to take a hard
line to ensure that people know that
we are here. We have been here for
a long time. We don’t want any
institution to represent us.”
Guyana called to
rejoin CARDI
Speaking at the Trade workshop in
Barbados, Greene emphasized that
CaFAN is increasing its collaboration
with CARDI, in an effort to ensure
there is proper research and
development in the region.
In this regard, he issued a call for
“Guyana, which is supposed to lead
the region in agriculture, to take its
vital place back in CARDI”.
He added: “One of the things we’re
pushing is coordinated research and
if we have a research and
development institute like CARDI, we
must support it. We must finance it
and we must ensure that we have
the best scientists so that we are in a
position to reduce our cost in
production to give us the cutting
edge technology and it is very
important that we have this
relationship with CARDI to ensure
that with our governments, we have
practical action.”
He said that in addition to the issue
of encouraging the Guyana
government to rejoin CARDI, CaFAN
is concerned about a number of
other issues such as the Caribbean
Single Market and Economy (CSME),
which seems to be put on the
backburner, and the Economic
Partnership Agreement (EPA) with
Europe. He said that CaFAN intends
to examine every aspect of the EPA,
to understand where our farmers can
benefit, to look at the loopholes and
at the dangers, in ensuring that our
farmers take their rightful place in
lobbying for improved status of
regional farmers.
5
ECTAD stepped up its advocacy in promoting backyard/
home gardening across the Caribbean. Promoting
backyard gardening was included in ECTAD’s nine
month Pilot Project, ‘Linking Agriculture with Health
and Nutrition’ in which emphasis was placed on
increased production and consumption of local fruits,
vegetables and root crops.
Chief Coordinator of ECTAD says the Ministry of
Agriculture and the Nutrition Unit of the Ministry of
Health and the Environment has been supportive of
the pilot project. He suggests that promoting backyard
gardening could be another collaborative effort by the
Ministries of Agriculture, the private sector, schools
and agricultural institutes, particularly in relation to the
widespread supply of seeds at affordable prices.
He also wants agriculture to be returned to the general
school curriculum. “This would stimulate awareness
and greater appreciation for agriculture among young
people,” Greene said. According to him, the nine-
month pilot project, launched in September 2007, has
begun to bear fruit as more Vincentians have become
aware of the nine dietary guideline that have been
designed by the Nutrition Unit of the Ministry of Health
and the Environment.
Tomatoes
Monty Roberts displaying lettuce grow in his home garden
Home gardening can be an invaluable hobby, says
Monty Roberts, an ECTAD Director. The former
Minister of Government has a thriving garden at his
Cane Garden residence. According to him, home
gardening is not only a meaningful way to engage in
leisure – finding communion with nature - it could
serve as a direct way of providing food for one’s home
all year round and can contribute to family food
security while helping to reduce the family food bill.
The home garden can also be used to influence the
family’s diet by producing vegetables and root crops,
depending on the size and nature of the land that is
available. By engaging in backyard gardening one can
become meaningfully involved in linking agriculture to
nutrition by growing fruits and vegetables that one can
eat fresh from one’s yard, particularly in developing
countries where green leafy vegetables, legumes and
fruits can provide micronutrients such as Vitamin A and
C, iron, sometimes Vitamin B and in some cases protein
and oil.
Home gardening can serve as an effective safety net
against seasonally marketed fruits and vegetables as
one could ensure that one provides the “scarce
commodities” for oneself, effectively augmenting or
replenishing the family’s food supply. Apart from basic
subsistence, a well developed home garden can
provide income through the sale of produce.
Additionally, the home garden can provide exotic
spices and herbs that one can use in food preparation,
processing and storage.
6
Sidney Sutherland, Agricultural Extension Officer,
dealing with vegetables from Peruvian Vale to Fancy,
made presentations at ECTAD workshops in which he
divulged various aspects and techniques about
backyard gardening.

He advises that before planting one should prepare the

Sutherland said the preferred soil for backyard garden
in St. Vincent is sandy-loam, porous top soil, which
would afford leaching of water so that the plants would
not suffer from too much water in the soil. He
recommends two barrows (buckets) of white river sand
to one of pen manure, which could be from cattle,
chicken, rabbit, or small ruminants. He stressed that
dog down is not a consideration. The top soil should be
loose and contain a lot of organic material so that the
soil would be able to hold water. According to
Sutherland, if one is planting in containers, one should
bore holes at the bottom of the containers so that the
water could leach out.
soil since soil preparation is extremely important in any
type of agriculture including root crops and carrots.
This involves turning (churning) up the soil. He also
explained the importance of crop rotation for
maintaining life in the soil
He also said crops such as melons, cabbage and squash
tend to add nutrients to the soil from their roots.
“When their roots fall off, nitrogen from the roots go to
the soil and once it is properly rotted tends to also add
humus (organic matter) to the soil.”

He stressed that composting could be very effective in

backyard/home gardening. Explaining that compost
should comprise waste material from food preparation
such as peels from ground provision, banana skin, etc.,
Sutherland said one should designate an area in the
backyard to put such material including cardboard –
mixing them.

He also said composting could take up to a year for the
stuff to be properly rotted. For persons who have
limited yard space but still want to engage in
backyard/home gardening, Sutherland pointed to a
variety of containers that can be used, including used
tires from motor vehicles.
The Agricultural Extension Officer is also advising
persons who engage in backyard/home gardening to
engage in alternative activities if they have available
space. “If you have an area such as a swamp, you can
rear fish inside of it.” He added that the fish would eat
the mosquito eggs. Sutherland also said one could also
engage in poultry and rabbit rearing.

7
Accepting the Challenge; changing the pace
People in the Southern Caribbean
would find it difficult to perceive of a
dedicated farmer in the Bahamas.
Henry Duncombe defies that
perception.
In an interview with Mr. Jeffrey
Trotman at the ATF workshop,
Duncombe said that the workshop
has helped him to understand the
region and to understand what other
farmers are experiencing. He was
able to learn more about networking
with other farmers within the region
as well as learning some of the new
technology including hydroponic and
the use of greenhouses.
Here’s his story:
“Truly, you wouldn’t associate
farming with the Bahamas. If you
look at advertisement on television
or radio, you would only think about
tourism. The Bahamas consists of at
least seven hundred islands, rocks
and cays. We have 21 inhabited
islands with serious farming on at
least five of those islands. The island
from which I hail is Grand Bahamas.
We have at least ten thousand acres
to farm on but we have an issue in
that no one is farming. I’m the head
of the Grand Bahamas farmers
Cooperative.
Our membership is really thirty
persons of which we have about
seven or eight persons coming to
meetings and we have about five
farmers.
Notwithstanding, we do have a large
individual farmer on Grand Bahamas,
who hails from Greece but migrated
to the Bahamas. He produces
chickens and vegetables and he
exports to America, but the (native)
Bahamian farmers have been facing
challenges in getting government
help and assistance (legislation to
help the farming industry). Of course,
the Bahamas being tourist based,
we’re not looking at the eventuality
that we would have to try to feed
ourselves.
They tell the story that Hawaii grows
pineapples. But the Hawaiian
pineapple actually came from the
Bahamas. Apparently, they grew
pineapples in Eleuthera. The
Hawaiians came and took the
technology to Hawaii. Now, we don’t
grow pineapples anymore.
The Bahamas used to be a farming
colony many years ago. Now, the
average age of a farmer is 70. Young
people are not getting involved in
agriculture.
They said I look like a banker, but I
worked in the chemical industry
before going into agriculture. I was
always an entrepreneur. I had a few
businesses running. I ran and
operated an automobile cleaning
company, but I found that to be too
labor intensive and me not having
control over a number of things that
happen - people were damaging cars
and stealing money.
I felt that I should go into agriculture
or tourism. At the time, the
government was telling everybody to
go into some tourist base Endeavour
or to go into agriculture. Basically, I
chose agriculture without
background, so, after choosing that I
had to read and learn and try to gain
as much knowledge from one or two
farmers, who were in the area.
I grow mainly bananas and hot
peppers and guavas. When I first
entered into agriculture I also did
chickens for a while. But when I
entered agriculture I couldn’t find a
source that could help me
understand some of the issues.
I started out with two acres of
bananas. Then I moved to five acres
and found some challenges. I could
not find anyone in the Bahamas who
could help me. It so happened that I
ran into a group that was selling
bananas from St. Vincent. I went to
St. Vincent for about two weeks
where I learnt all about tending
bananas. And when I returned in
bout ten months, I had my crops turn
around.
At that point, after doing all that
good work and I had everything
colored and bagged and labeled and
everything like that it was September
and the hurricane took over. And
after that, most of the farmers had to
run.
I lost about $15,000 in crop damage
from the hurricane. About eleven
months after the hurricane, some
farmers received some
compensation from government but
what I received was well below my
losses. I was growing bananas to the
export quality as in St. Vincent but I
did not have the quantity to export
to Europe. I exported to other islands
in the Bahamas.
After losing a lot of money due to
the hurricane, I decided to diversify. I
am now planting guavas. Some
farmers have done market research
into the prices of fresh vegetables.
Some consideration is being given to
a linking tourism with agriculture in the
Bahamas but it’s at an exploratory
stage. It is anticipated that CaFAN
would support farmers in the
Bahamas, who make up the network.
8
Belle Vue Farmers’ strengthens Tourism Linkages
The Bellevue Farmers’ Cooperative
Society Ltd is set to engage in its
second initiative in St. Lucia in
collaboration with the Barbados based
Oxfam GB with technical assistance
from ECTAD. This initiative is a three
year project, aimed at building on the
successfully implemented ‘Linking
agriculture to Tourism’. It involves
£300,000 in grant, loans and
guarantees and will intensify the focus
on selling local fresh fruits and
vegetables to St. Lucian hotels.
The project is expected to benefit
rural communities by increasing
shareholder returns of eight hundred
farmers and their families by ten to
thirty percent. It is also expected to
increase women’s participation and
contribution as business leaders and
public policy influencers while
improving their earning potential.
Additionally, against the backdrop of
declining banana markets and
reduced preferential treatment in
Europe, this new thrust is intended to
serve as a sustainable alternative in
farming communities. This will place
emphasis on banana cultivation and
other traditional food crops by helping
a smooth and viable agricultural
diversification process.
For their mutual benefits
Local farmers expect to benefit from
assured incomes should they provide
consistent supplies of acceptable
quality fresh fruits and vegetables to
the 60 hotels in St. Lucia. These
hotels have a total of 2,650 rooms
serving 300,000 visitors annually. It is
anticipated with the rate of
construction in St. Lucia, the country’s
hotel rooms will increase to about
5,000 by mid 2009.
Although, the hotels currently import
more than 70 per cent of their
produce, they recognize that by
offering local produce to their guests,
thereby, giving the visitors an
authentic experience and in the
process, the hotels appear to be good
corporate citizens. By increasing their
purchases of local produce, the hotels
can reduce costs. It is estimated that
the two Sandals resorts in St. Lucia
saved almost £200,000 in 2006 by
buying locally. This trend is expected
to continue.
Achieving their objectives
This three-year programme aims to
strengthen marketing function
through staff recruitment, brand
development and work jointly with
hotels that are contracted to tour
operator Virgin Holidays. It also aims
to increase market share from 10 to
25 per cent by expanding product mix
from nine to fifteen products and
expanding customer base from 15 to
30.
The project is geared at developing
production planning systems to
monitor and evaluate the enterprise
with the intention of improving prices
and distribution service. And aims to
educate and inform all stakeholders
on the benefits of local purchasing.
Provision of training and mentoring to
an additional 400 farmers along with
the current farmers’ groups is another
aspect of the project objective. This
would include influencing adoption of
best practices across all business
functions including procurement,
production planning, post harvest
handling and accounting.
The programme is expected to utilize
a buffer fund for an additional 400
farmers to cover debts incurred while
they await payment from hotels,
thereby enabling a sustainable
enterprise. It is also expected to
advocate for and lobby key partners
and stakeholders to influence and
foster strategic alliances with the
government and tourism sector.
Vincentia
Fatal,
Corporate
Secretary for
the Board of
directors of the
Bellevue
Farmers
Cooperative
The St. Lucia model of ‘Linking
Agriculture to Tourism’ has been
envisioned against the twin backdrop
of the island being one of the more
competitive Caribbean countries in
the highly lucrative tourism industry
and being an agricultural country in
which its main agricultural crop has
seen a decline on its main market,
Europe.
St. Lucia’s well developed tourism
industry generates an annual income
of £200M while there have been
limited opportunities for the country’s
small farmers to compete on a
globalized market.
Consequently, it makes for good sense
for the country’s farmers to cash in on
the lucrative domestic tourist market.
The initiative which is led by the
rurally based Belle Vue farmers’
Cooperative Society Ltd, also involves
the Black Bay Farmers’ Association,
Banse Farmers, and Grace Farmers.
This informal network has been
working closely for five year.
9
Christiana Potato Growers Cooperative Association Ltd
“Maintaining a Potato Tradition”
“Sweet potato is now regarded as one of the world’s
newest health food,” said Mr. Alvin Murray, the General
Manager of the Christiana Potato Growers Cooperative
Association Limited. He proudly added, “Because the
climate is much cooler than in the southern Caribbean,
the Jamaican sweet potato is preferred by the
importers, and because they are sweeter.”
He said the current emphasis on sweet potato is in line
with the farming tradition of the Christiana community,
which has a one hundred year history of growing potato
since Irish potato was taken to Jamaica by Moravian
Missionaries (food they were eating in the US).
“Very soon the crop caught on and started replacing
cotton as the major crop in Central Jamaica in the hills,
averaging about 2,700 feet above sea level,” Murray
said, adding that by 1980, over 4,000 acres of land was
under potato cultivation.
He said potato production reached a peak in the 1980s
with much of the produce exported to Guyana and
Trinidad. But, unfortunately, due to globalization, the
very Canadian company that in the seventies and
eighties put in most of the seed potatoes in Jamaica is
now exporting four different varieties to Jamaica.
According to him, unbridled dumping of North American
potato to Jamaica, has forced local production of the
tuber to drop to 10% of 1980 production.
Since it started in March 1959, the organization has
achieved much in terms of infrastructural development.
The organisation became discouraged in 1992 when,
although the government spoke a lot about boosting
local potato production, the industry got no assistance
from government which saw Christiana Potato Growers
as an entity without comparative advantage.
Having been able to utilize tissue culture and green
house technology, it created a perfect opportunity for
the Cooperative to produce their own potato seeds,
thereby, allowing them to plant their main crop in the
fastest possible time, which they had not been able to
do in previous years.
Seeds are only available for planting between November
and April each year, while the best time for planting is
July-August. That crop would be ready for Christmas and
the tourist season. Harvesting of the main crop would
take place in the cool season when the rainfall is more
assured.
The major distribution company in Jamaica would be
signing an agreement for the Christiana Potato Growers
Cooperative to sell greenhouse vegetables to the hotel
sector. This will allow the members of the Cooperative
to immediately access increased cash flow.
Different varieties of the Sweet Potato
10
The Cooperative is a direct member of the Jamaica
Agricultural Society, which was instrumental over fifty
years ago in getting farmers to form their own
COADY Interns doing it the
cooperatives. According to Murray, the Cooperative has
a membership of 17,000 and attempts to maintain a one Caribbean Farmers way!
to one relationship with its membership.

Although he does not believe in a full scale loan

programme, he said that there is a consensus among the
membership that there should be an input credit
system.

He pointed to a five year development plan, which could

be used to add value to the farmers’ produce, beginning
with sweet potatoes. The Cooperative has about US$1M
in assets. It is expected to add to this by utilizing
recently received funds from the country’s Private
Sector Development Programme (funded by the
European Union) to build about 2,000 square feet of COADY Interns Laird Herbert and Paula Hearn, assist Nyasha
greenhouses, which should build the capacity of the Durrant with final preparation of Dasheen for shipment to Europe.
cooperative and increase potential for additional
income.

Land has been cleared and important equipment have

been purchased at about J$1M (approx. US$12,000), to
construct greenhouses. Although the Christiana farmers
operate in hilly, mountainous terrain, access roads to
their farms are fairly good.

“The Global Environmental Fund (GEF) has just given us

a grant for US$30,000. What we are doing with that is to
establish fruit trees – two and a half acres. We have
intercropped that with yams and sweet potatoes for the
farmer who is going to make a transition.”
COADY Interns promoting ECTAD/CaFAN booth during the
Agriculture Week of Activities (October 2008)
Murray said an international organization visited the
Christiana farming community a year ago and was
impressed. He said the organization is willing to help the
farmers but because of Jamaica’s national debt burden it
cannot lend the Christiana Potato Growers any money.

He said the organization is willing to make a grant of

US$30,000, most of which would be spent at the
Christiana Potato Growers Cooperative demonstration
farm. The organization is also prepared to loan the
Cooperative up to US$5M at 6% interest but the
government cannot guarantee that loan because of the
national debt burden.

Laird and Paula are not afraid of getting their hands dirty for the
good of agriculture; Planting ECTAD’S Garden.

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CaFAN Strengthens relationship with COADY
Intern’s hand
The Caribbean Farmers Network
(CaFAN) through its Vincentian based
Secretariat; the Eastern Caribbean
Trading Agriculture development
Organisation (ECTAD) is strengthening
its relationship with the COADY
International Institute of St. Francis
Xavier University in Nova Scotia,
Canada.

The strengthening of ties between

the two organizations initially involves
COADY volunteers participating in
developmental work with ECTAD and
with CaFAN member organizations.
The relationship also allows for
ECTAD/CaFAN to recommend persons
to attend the various diplomas and
certificate courses provided by
COADY at the St. Francis Xavier Dasheen planted with the assistance of Herbert
campus at Antigonish, Nova Scotia.
The institution also has on-line COADY’s main focus is “on effective adult education approaches to
educational facilities. building leadership and strengthening organizational capacity. It is
education for action. It is a transformative learning experience that
equips development leaders with new knowledge, practical skills
and a renewed commitment they take back to their communities
and their organizations to build better societies. It is education that
matters!

COADY has a network of over 5,000 graduates and a number of

global partners in over 130 countries, reaching out to millions of
men, women and children in the world’s poorest nations and
communities.

The Institute is named in honor of Rev. Dr. Moses M. Coady, who

was a leading figure in the Antigonish Movement, which sought
economic and social justice for people in Nova Scotia, Canada in the
1920s and subsequently spread throughout Canada and the rest of
the world.

Laird Herbert, Intern associated with CaFAN,

assists Monty Roberts, ECTAD Director, with the
planting of Sweet Potato at Orange Hill, St.
Vincent and the Grenadines

12
Hydrogrow shows…Technology is the Way to Go!
Participants of the ATF regional workshop
were taken on a field visit to Hydrogrow
Farms Inc in Barbados.

Hydrogrow Farms Inc. is a project dedicated

to the large scale production of vegetables
by hydroponics. Hydroponics operates on
the premise that soil is not essential to
plant growth. It is a method of growing
plants in greenhouses, using nutrient
solutions instead of soil.

Participants entering one of the greenhouses

Keeley Holder as she explains to participants

the operations of Hydrofrow

During the guided tour by Keeley Holder,

Integrated Pest Management Specialist, the
farmers’ leaders had much to feast their
eyes on and to contemplate.

Greenhouses

Workers packaging produce while

participants look on

13
CaFAN signs LOA with FAO
CaFAN has signed a Letter of Agreement with the Food and
Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) to
host and organize a regional workshop on strengthening
the capacity of Farmer Organizations (FOs) to respond to
trends in agricultural markets. The workshop is schedule to
take place at the Bay Gardens Inn in St. Lucia from
November 24-28, 2008.
This workshop, funded by the EC - All African Caribbean
Pacific Commodities Programme, is a direct response to a
request at the regional consultation workshop in Montego
Bay, Jamaica in April 2008. For more information on the
overall programme please visit
(http://www.euacpcommodities.eu)
The workshop will bring together representatives from
regional and national farmer organizations and
agribusiness. The objective is to identify capacity building
strategies that FOs and networks at the regional, national
and sub-national level can promote in order to support
smallholders become reliable and profitable suppliers for
the agribusiness sector.
A major output of the workshop will be the national and
sub-national capacity building strategies to be supported
by FAO under the EC-ACP programme or by other donors.
Introduction
The opening up of markets and the closing down of state
marketing boards have meant that small-farmers and other
players in agriculture (processors, buyers, traders, and
exporters) now have to organize and interact with one
another differently. Today’s markets demand larger
volumes, lower prices and higher quality produce, and the
actors involved have to constantly cut costs to survive and
make profits. Smallholders struggle to keep up with these
new trends and find themselves at a disadvantage as they
have high transaction costs and low bargaining power.
To deal with these challenges in agriculture, FOs
continuously look for new ways to organize their members
so that they can make more profits and cost savings
through collective action, such as bulk buying, collective
marketing and negotiating credit and contracts. However
they frequently face a numbers of obstacles, which are
mostly linked to capacity on three fronts: markets, services
and voice.
Capacities of Farmer Organizations
Markets: FOs play an important role in assisting their
members to access more profitable markets. To compete in
these markets an organization needs to have access to the
latest information and a number of skills such as
production techniques, marketing, and knowledge on
quality and food safety standards and legal contract
matters.
Services: FOs provide a range of services to their members
including technical advice, access to credit, cheaper inputs
through bulk buying, storage facilities, and training in
compliance with certification and standards. To deliver
these services FOs need a range of technical, management
and organization skills.
Voice: Representing the common concerns and interests of
members has always been an important role for FOs.
Advocacy and negotiation skills can help influence decision
making and increase bargaining power when negotiating
contracts or policies. Conflict management skills can help
resolve problems caused by conflicting members’ interests.
Farmer Organization networks
The capacities that FOs rely on reflect the types and
numbers of farmers the organization represents, such as, a
group of farmers from a community, a commodity specific
cooperative, a national farmers union, or a regional farmers
federation.
For instance, a farmers’ federation will share information
among its members, do advocacy, negotiate with policy
makers, direct agronomic research, and participate at high
level meetings. A community FO will carry out a wide
number of activities ranging from marketing its members’
produce, primary processing to providing loans and
technical advice and training.
The World Bank’s Development Report 2008, distinguishes
FOs into three categories of functions: (i) commodity
specific that focus on economic services (ii) advocacy
organizations such as a national producers union, and (iii)
multipurpose organizations that provide a combination of
economic, political and social services.
Conclusion
Strengthening FOs at different levels, from national to
community level, in capacities that focus on responding to
the needs of agribusiness demands can support
smallholders become reliable and profit-making suppliers
of agriculture produce.
Source: Terms of Reference under LOA PR: 40264
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Embracing the Vision, Capturing the Heart
CaFAN was formed to create and sustain dialogue
amongst farmers’ organizations within the region.
The organization, which began as a loose body of
crop farmers, has grown to include livestock and
poultry farmers as well as governmental marketing
bodies and agro processors within the Caribbean.
The network comprises farmers’ organizations from
thirteen member countries of CARICOM and is
increasingly being recognized as the leading voice
for farmers and farmers’ organizations within the
region.
However, the leadership of CaFAN is cognizant that
while it wishes for the members of the network to
maintain their respective autonomy, its
membership includes farmers’ organizations that
represent disparate interests with the agricultural
sector within the respective members countries
and may even represent different regions within a
country.
Ventilation of these disparate interests at a
common forum could be distractive and could
retard the effort by CaFAN to be a common front
for all farmers and farmers’ organizations within
the region.
Consequently, CaFAN is encouraging its
membership in respective countries to develop
clusters, which can identify common causes at the
level of the cluster, which can then be taken by the
respective national bodies to CaFAN.
In essence, CaFAN’s vision is to ensure that the
region’s farmers get their fair share of the
economic pie. This can only be achieved by
building capacity amongst farmers and farmers’
organizations so that they can be empowered and
become self assertive to be able to respond to the
changing world environment in marketing, trade
and finance.
FOCUS…
CaFAN’S major focus is to link Caribbean farmers so
that they are in a better position to face key
challenges, with a view of coming up with feasible
proposals for solutions at the national and regional
levels. The Network has identified several
programme areas which include enhancing the
capacities of farmers’ associations to represent their
members, raise awareness and influence decisions
on issues affecting farmers, mobilise resources on
behalf of members, and facilitate the increase in
communication between and among the network
members.
MEMBERSHIP …
Membership of CaFAN is open to farmers’
associations in countries of the Caribbean region. To
date, the following countries have participated in
activities of CaFAN: Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados,
Bahamas, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, St
Kitts/Nevis; St Lucia, St Vincent & the Grenadines,
Trinidad & Tobago and Suriname.
EXECUTIVE MEMBERS …
• Chairman: Senator Norman Grant, Jamaica
Agriculture Society (JAS), Jamaica
• Chief Coordinator: Jethro Greene, Eastern
Caribbean Trading Agriculture and Development
Organisation (ECTAD), St. Vincent and the
Grenadines
• Director: James Paul, Barbados Agriculture
Society (BAS), Barbados
• Director: Claudette de Freitas, Caribbean
Agriculture Research and Development Institute
(CARDI), Trinidad and Tobago
• Director: Dhano Sookoo, Agricultural Society of
Trinidad and Tobago(ASTT), Trinidad and
Tobago
15
 Caribbean Farmers Network
C/o Eastern Caribbean Trading Agriculture
and Development Organization (ECTAD)

P.O. Box 827, Beachmont

Kingstown, St. Vincent and the Grenadines
cafancaribbean@gmail.com or ectadsvg@yahoo.com
www.caribbeanfarmers.org
Tel: (784) 453-1004 Fax: (784) 453-1239

This document has been produced with the financial assistance of the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural cooperation (CTA)
However, the views expressed herein can in no way be taken to reflect the official opinion of CTA

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