Belize is hosting a four-day regional seminar on food and nutrition security. That's a big title, but it simply deals with what citizens of Caribbean countries are eating, why they're eating it, and how can we all eat more healthily. We'll tell you more about the proposed answers for those questions when we cover the conference later on in the newscast. But some of the most important food issues have to do with eating what we produce. This weekend Alfonso Noble found out a lot about what's growing in Belizean soil and why. Here's his report.
Alfonso Noble Reporting,
7 days a week, and virtually around the clock, the Tower Hill Sugar Factory faithfully bellows and smokes as it has done for over 40 years. But with the shrinkage of sugar quotas in the European Market for Belize and other Caribbean territories, the sight of these long serving chimneys puffing smoke may be a thing of the past as more competitive sugar producing countries flood the already market with cheaper sugar. Now the Ministry of Agriculture in Belize is working double overtime to ensure that when sugar fortunes finally sour, there will be competitive products to replace the lost income. It's been a slow move but one that is surely coming along with the introduction of non-traditional products like onions.
Manuel Trujillo, National Crops Coordinator
"5 years ago we were not producing any onions at all. In fact the acreage that we had was only 8.5 acres which was not significant. 5 years from that time we are producing 2.3 million, that's what we forecast for this year in the production of onions. Our immediate goal is to produce 4.6 pounds for the country's needs, that's local demands, and it would generate about $3.5 million for local farmers. But we are working in the long term goal to probably export onions to the Caribbean market."
Eugene Waight, Chief Agricultural Officer
"Onions is one of the success stories. As you can see we have gone from zero production to 130 acres where we are right now. In fact this year they are sighting 30 additional acres as compared to last year and people are still planting and we hope to get even an off season crop this year because we are introducing some new varieties and encouraging farmers, and the association, to get into this off season production so we can be on the market for a longer period, probably even supply the country the entire year."
That prospect of supplying onions to the country, year round is now only being looked at because of the way diversification has been taking place. Through initiatives from the Ministry of Agriculture, slowly they are starting to convince farmers to make the shift from sugar cane farming. Amadeo Che is the Chairman of the Corozal Agriculture Producers Association and a former cane farmer. His 48-member organization is one of the first to be formed and the advantages of being organized are already visible after only one year of operation.
Amadeo Che, Chairman CAPA
"We have been looking that if we are not organized, we are confronting many problems. We cannot have the sufficient voice or we cannot represent ourselves as an association and then anybody can fail in producing or in selling or in buying any other product. So our farmers saw the need of organizing ourselves. Our association produces many commodities. We produce firstly onions, cabbage, sweet peppers, hot peppers, and any vegetable that we see our people can do a profit out of it. We are seeing right now the benefits of being organized.
For example we are selling our onions right now at a stable price which is 70 cents per pound but people who are not organized are feeling that the market of onions is trouble for them so they try to go outside and sell their product at any price and this causes the farmers to damage themselves by selling their products at a lower price than selling it at a group price to make a profit out of it."
Manuel Trujillo, National Crops Coordinator
"They saw a need in terms of accessing credit. It was very difficult for farmers individually to access credit and not only credit but technical assistance in terms of the Ministry. The Ministry does not have all that staff to cover individual farmers so its more cost effective for us and it creates a greater impact, and of course they could negotiate with companies, specifically those that provide the input and seeds. They could actually have the advantage of negotiating better prices for their producers and it has been a success. When farmers are not organized they create a lot of problems with banks in not only accessing technical assistance but of competition. Actually at the end of the day when they have a lot of production in the market, the prices decrease and they don't get the income that they expected."
Chief Agricultural Officer Eugene Waight says that this organization is beneficial in many ways. Presently CAPA has accessed finance to build storage facilities for their onions. But more that just benefiting the organization, those benefits carry over to the entire country.
Eugene Waight, Chief Agricultural Officer
"Its very important and was very timely now that we have two existing vegetable producers association that are working together to coordinate the production so that we don't overproduce and that we produce good quality and that we produce the amount that the country demands. From a micro level yes the farmer would generate, from a farm-to-farm basis, or an association they would generate income for the families and they would be able to afford a lot more of the things that they were used to at one point. I think these days people tend to spend less because they have more income but I think with this program in place and them generating, because for sure onions and these
other commodities, if properly planned can generate in excess of 100% of your dollar invested. And at a macro-level this is part of our import substitution program where instead of investing probably the $12 million that we do right now in importation of vegetables, we can save that money and we don't have to even spend on the foreign exchange acquisition. So it has its impact at the micro and the macro level. This year with the formation of this association, other farmers will see the success that they're having and I hope to see more farmers, maybe later this year or next year, get into commodities beside sugar cane because we all know there is very little future in the sugar industry except if we reform and that is another issue by itself. I think once other farmers see the success, they will probably want to venture into these commodities too."
But first there is a word of caution from Che.
Amadeo Che, Chairman CAPA
"If all cane farmers be vegetable producers we might have a problem. But as long as I know when I was a cane farmer there are some cane farmers who have all their machines, their machines, their trucks, and their implements, so the cost of sugar cane to them will be a little bit better. There will be some cane farmers than can continue in the sugar industry but the other farmers who don't anything, just the license, might diversify in agriculture. All the farmers that are producing onions were cane farmers but as we are seeing right now the price of the sugar cane is very low so we are diversifying to other products, especially in the onions. We are seeing that onions is a product that's very successful for us. We cannot disappear automatically from sugar cane but we can use for example the vegetable production as the main part of our living because we think that as how the prices of the sugar cane worldwide is going, we are feeling that maybe the future we might not be able to produce cane because it will be very very cheap, the price of sugar cane."
But before that occurs, the efforts continue to change these fields from cane to onions, peppers, cabbages, papayas, and any other product that can take root and find flower in these fertile lands.
Onion and other vegetable production represent some $12 million in income for 1,500 people in the Corozal and Orange Walk districts.
