Agricultural land in the Eastern Caribbean (original) (raw)
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2014
oor land management has been recognized as a major constraint to sustainable agricultural production in the Caribbean. It is further recognized that land use policy and legislation can play an important role in addressing this problem. To this end, a number of countries in the Englis h speaking Caribbean have identified Land Use Policy as a priority area for assistance under their Country Programme Frameworks for assistance from the FAO. This document seeks to share the experiences in land tenure, land use policy and legislation and land administration of six countries of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS)-Antigua and Barbuda,
Caribbean development theory has long advocated a break from economic reliance on single crop exports through the promotion of domestic agriculture. Yet today the domestic agricultural sector in much of the Caribbean is underdeveloped, as the rising food import bill attests. This paper examines the historical views on domestic agriculture by development theorists with a focus on how recurring economic crises have created opportunities to advance domestic agricultural production. Whileinternalandexternalforceshavethwartedmany of these efforts, the current global food crisis may provide a sustained incentive to overcomethestructurallegacy oftheplantationeconomythrough development of the domestic agricultural sector.
Small farming and radical imaginations in the Caribbean today
Race and Class, 2007
Forged and still scarred by slavery, Caribbean agricultural landscapes are now being made redundant in an era of global market integration. The demise of preferential trade agreements is exposing the uncompetitiveness of the plantation sector while small farmers, still largely confined to marginal positions within highly inequitable landscapes, are being pushed into a new vulnerability by market integration, as rising food imports flood local markets. Unfortunately, political attention continues to revolve around the ailing plantation sector. In contrast, it is argued here that the current crisis of Caribbean agriculture contains a historic opportunity for restructuring in the interests of the region's small farmers and that, in the process, the sector could be helped to gain a new vitality.
Some Factors Affecting Revitalization and Modernization of Agriculture in the Caribbean
1990
Agriculture is the dominant industry in most of the developing countries of the world. In the developing countries of the Caribbean, approximately 80% of the population are directly/indirectly dependent on agriculture for their livelihood; consequently it influences directly the socioeconomic and political aspects of life. Although a number of technological innovations and improvements in agriculture have taken place during the last two decades, their adoption and practice have been slow in the Caribbean, resulting in no significant improvement in productioh per unit area. The average yield of some economic crops in the Caribbean compared to the yields in developed countries, would clearly indicate that there is vast scope for improvement of yields of these crops (Table l). The Food Import Bill of the region is staggering, exceeding US$1 billion in 1988. Table 2 indicates the food import bill of Jamaica. Considerable amounts of foreign exchange are spent for the importation of corn, seed potato, rice, flour, livestock feed, dairy products, soybean, onion etc., most of which can be grown in the region. However, this can be achieved only with the concerted efforts of farmers, researchers and governments. In order to optimize overall agricultural and livestock production, an Integrated Farming Systems approach is suggested. Within its framework, revitalization and modernization of agriculture should be *carried out. Integrated Farming Systems methodology takes into account all aspects of agricultural production, interdependencies of their by-products and efficient utilization of available resources (Preston 1986). Figure I illustrates how the natural resources of solar energy, rainfall, nitrogen, soil and farm management can be considered in an integrated production system. The Integrated Farming Systems approach 125
Agrarian Decline and Breadbasket Dependence in the Caribbean: Confronting Illusions of Inevitability
Labour, capital and society, 2003
Cet article situe le déclin agraire de la région dans le contexte d'une transformation plus large de la production et de l'intégration du marché mondial. Le but de l'article est de démystifier les forces du marché omniprésentes et écrasantes que confrontent les petits producteurs agricoles des Caraïbes, en attirant l'attention sur les intérêts puissants qui sous-tendent les changements actuels. L'analyse est fondée sur la conviction que la petite agriculture constitue une activité productive et une source de dignité dans la région et, par conséquent, devrait être réorganisée et revalorisée au lieu d'être abandonnée à un fatalisme injustifié.
Subsistence Cultivation in the Caribbean
New West India Guide, 1986
This paper is based on field research on the islands of Barbuda and Montserrat, and on published crop lists from a range of Caribbean locales. It identifies the core crops and gardening techniques that prevail in Caribbean subsistence gardens despite differences in elevation, rainfall, and underlying geology. It was a cooperative project between an anthropologist, Riva Berleant, and a geographer, Lydia Pulsipher.