BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - NO land, no farm, no food. This was the platform for which the farmers of the Sandy Point Agricultural Cooperative Society (SPACS) spoke at a land-for-debt swap meeting held Tuesday evening (Nov. 6) at Mount Idle by the town’s leading community groups - SPIRIT, SPACS and CIPEO.
SPACS’ spokesperson Lionel Stevens, while addressing attendees at the meeting, expressed the Cooperative's concern about not only the amount of lands that are being swapped in Sandy Point, but also the areas where the lands are located, noting that they may lose their farmlands which mean they would have to relocate.
"When we look at the lands that are being swapped, we as an organisation striving to feed our community, we are going to be affected by it. According to the Act, it states that from Sir Gillies to Bourkes is where they have earmarked for the swap.
"Most of our farmers are located in the Farms Estate area, which is said to be a part of it. According to the information, it is not exactly clear as to which lands are going to be swapped, so we are not sure if our farms are gone, but the mere fact that the area is being called, we are concerned."
Stevens said many of the farmers have invested a lot of time and monies as well as efforts into the lands and if their lands are indeed a part of the swap, the time, energy and money it would take for them to move and replant their products, a great deal of their financial investments would be lost.
"If you look around, we have a scarcity for fruit. A fruit tree doesn't bear in three months like vegetables, and the mere fact that we would have to move and all these trees would have to be uprooted or destroyed, it sets back farmers and it destroys major investments. Investments that don't just come back over night. Food is something that we need on a daily basis. I just want to say to us as a people, we need to come together and do things for ourselves," he said.
Stevens gave a mathematical scenario for everyone in attendance to consider with respect to the Federation growing its own food.
He said: "If we were to think that the average person consumes $10 worth of food per day, it would show that he eats about $300 worth per month.
"The population of St. Kitts-Nevis is about 50 000 persons; that means on a monthly basis $15M is spent on food alone. Fifteen million dollars on a monthly basis circulates in our economy on food if the average man eats $10 in food per day. And we know one meal per day is more than $10, so what I'm trying to say is when we are going to give away 1 200 acres, the land could generate $900M in no time if $15M is being spent on food per month."
Stevens made a call on the Sandy Point residents to pull together and work as a team to get what they want and where they want to go.
Using his group as an example, Stevens said the Sandy Point Agricultural Cooperative was able to reopen the market by coming together as a team, noting "if we come together we could own lands, we could buy lands, we could afford things and we could accomplish things by coming together".
He went on to state that the Federal Government had put an end to the sugar industry because it was not making any money which, he said, everyone agreed with but "if sugar is not making money, plant something else because at the end of the day we all need food".
"If we don't have any lands we can't plant any food. St. Kitts was called Liamuiga for a reason, not for its good looks but for its fertile soil. We used to feed the Caribbean, right now Dominica and all kind of places are feeding us and that is because we as a people are not planting food," he said.
With regards to imported foods, Stevens said they are modified and processed foods which everyone would have to resort to eating if the nation does not plant its own. He went on to state that with food coming from different areas across the world, the people could not be certain of what they are getting, stressing that it is best to plant their own so they could know what they are eating.
He then made another appeal to the Sandy Pointers to work together to keep their lands.
"No land, no farm, no food. If we don't have any lands, we won't have any farms and we won't have any food," he said.
