KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent (CMC) — The leader of the main opposition New Democratic Party (NDP) Godwin Friday, has described as “nonsense” a proposal by Minister of Agriculture Saboto Caesar that local farmers be sent to cultivate 35,000 acres of land in Venezuela.
“No farmer in St Vincent and the Grenadines is going to Venezuela for doing anything. Venezuela is not a land of opportunity now,” said Friday, the opposition leader, as he commented on the Agroalba Cooperation Agreement.
“In any event, that is an idea, that is nonsense masquerading as some initiative. It just tells you that they have run out — I mean, they’re not scraping the barrel, they’re going under the box. Because that is such a stupid idea,” he said in response to a caller to his weekly radio programme.
Agroalba aims to establish food sovereignty within the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) region as its primary goal.
Caesar and Venezuelan Minister for Agriculture and Land, Menry Fernández signed a memorandum of understanding on agricultural cooperation earlier this month.
“How does that help agriculture in St. Vincent and the Grenadines? That is basically telling farmers here in this country, ‘Just give up what you’re doing’ because that is not offering any hope to our farmers here,” Friday said.
“And it’s mamaguying. And then when Saboto comes up with that idea and go and talk to farmers, they should say, ‘Man, you gotta be out of your mind. You grew up in a farming community. You know that nobody in your family going say they going Venezuela to do farming. What stupidness you’re talking about?’”
The opposition leader called on Caesar to deal with the issues affecting agriculture in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
“Help the farmers to get feeder roads, to get supply of imports, to protect their agricultural produce from people who steal them and also to guarantee that they have a decent return from their investment.”
He said the agriculture minister should guard against the market fluctuating “so wildly”, saying this was the case when the Marketing Board was operating.
“These are things that will help the farmers and tell them that you have some hope, not that you’re going to export them and send them off to Venezuela to do what?
“Ridiculous! It’s nonsense, and caller you should be really righteously indignant about this because what it says is that this government, they have lost all faith in farmers. They are now peddling all kinds of ridiculous ideas and calling them initiatives. And the farmers they won’t fall for that. They’re smarter than that.”
In presenting the initiative on the state-owned NBC Radio, Caesar said that most of the imported food consumed in the Caribbean comes from Latin America, via agents in Miami who buy them in bulk.
“So if you are now being offered 35,000 acres of land that could produce cattle, that could produce goats in large quantities, can produce rice, and you can enter into an arrangement, a private sector arrangement, private sector company, St. Vincent, private sector in Caracas, and expand the frontiers for food production in St. Vincent and the Grenadines,” Caesar said.
He said that four years after the eruption of La Soufriere volcano, a lot of farmers across the country cannot produce commodities because of changes in the PH of the soil.
“… and it can happen again, a category 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, can happen; a drought can happen. And at the end of the day, I am not going to sit here, see an opportunity to change the vulnerability and the susceptibility of our food system and not grab it.”
He said the St. Vincent and the Grenadines government is fully supportive of the project.
“Lands have been offered in the tune of 35,000 acres of land. We are putting a plan together. If you have ideas, we are going to have a public discussion on this,” Caesar said, adding that he is happy to be at the leadership of the project.
He said there are some commodities that Vincentian farmers would prefer to grow at home.
“… expansion of vegetables; our soils are excellent for dasheen production. And nobody said that because you have 35,000 acres of land in Venezuela, have access to that, means that you’re not going to pay attention.
“In fact, we are going to bulk up production in St. Vincent and the Grenadines,” Caesar said.
He said that with this “cross-fertilisation of ideas”, working with technicians from the ALBA platform, there would be “hundreds more of technical persons and increasing the human resource capacity.
“You are going to see persons from Venezuela come here to bring information as to how we can increase our production in certain commodities, other varieties.”
He said discussions are being held about an intra-ALBA shipping arrangement “because if you produce the commodities in Venezuela, you have to move them. And how this is going to impact on what is happening,” Caesar said.
“And let us in the whole discussion appreciate that what ALBA is doing now, and the offering from ALBA now, Guyana made that offer, Suriname made that offer, and it is for small islands like ours to be able to take up on these offers,” he said.
So what is the plan? Give Rayneau our agricultural lands and we go on a Venezuelan plantation, back to being slaves? Wow…….labour now!!!
Venezueelan are running from their country to Trinidad usa and else wher, why vencentian want to go to this country to work their land..,?? Please make it make sense.
It is one of the very few times that i hear this opposition is against anything that this regime do in svg i did not even know they had a voice
it’s de people, de people love um so. ‘don’t forget we are very special set of slaves.