The designation by Minister Alexis Jeffers of May as Agriculture month gives me the title for an article and himself a photo opportunity as he tries to divert attention away from his fatal mistake, the constructive dismissal of Kelvin Daly, the best Permanent Secretary (PS) to have headed the Department.
Mr. Jeffers says he does not know much about agriculture. As a Minister he does not have to be an expert, but he needs to be in a position to obtain, assess and understand the best advice, so that policy and programmes can be formulated, set in motion and managed. In Dr. Daly the Department had a PS better qualified and more knowledgeable than any of his juniors, a respected leader responsible for innovative programmes and increased discipline, morale and competence. When he took over six persons were educated to associated degree level, but by 2014 there will be two with MSC, three with BSC, five with associate degree and one DVM – the vet. Programmes he instituted included, the revival of sea island cotton, experimental green house technology, fish farming, increase in gene pool for pigs, sheep and cattle, support for abattoir, effective marketing division, growing of crops for that division, coordination with the Taiwanese farm, a thirty acre irrigation system at Indian Castle and management of the Agro Processing section.
When the Private Initiative began its attempt to improve school meals, we held a meeting at St. Thomas’s Primary School with the Principal and invited Dr. Daly to explain how ‘marketing’ could take over from the supermarkets. The Principal made an order which was delivered by ‘marketing’ that very same morning. Gary Griffin at the Abattoir was equally helpful and efficient. It is only recently that the Department has been able to obtain from the Taiwanese farm a number of products, such as dragon fruit and jujuba and improved varieties of pineapple, guava, wax apple, sugar apple, sweet potato, and sweet corn, for dissemination to the public, so we can produce our own. They have also during the last six years taken bud wood from some of my forty different kinds of mango for grafting and sale to the public. It is under Kelvin Daly that these things have been accomplished.
The Minister has discarded the ace in his pack before he has learnt the difference between a violin and a vegetable. His attempted justification for sending this outstanding public servant home was disingenuous, and gratuitously insulting. To describe him in Parliament and on the air as ‘a failed farmer’ is unnecessary, hurtful, wrong and irrelevant. Dr. Daly has made a great success of his position as PS Agriculture and the fact that the back to back hurricanes Luis and Marilyn, a mere ten days apart in 1995, blew away and destroyed his chicken farm has nothing whatever to do with that success. The Minister wouldn’t refer to Four Seasons as a failed hotel, would he? That hotel has twice been closed by hurricanes, put out of action for a total of three years, and is now owned by a bank, which wants to sell it.
We know that Minister Jeffers cancelled the US$12 million Fisheries Complex. This was an election promise, made at a time when he cannot have been fully informed about the nature of the project. Many benefits would have accrued to Nevis through this scheme. It is not often that an impoverished Government turns down a twelve million USD Japanese grant, especially one whose terms have been negotiated to secure particular benefits to the people. All contractors were to have been local. There would have been marine refuelling at the dock; a laboratory for ciguatera poison testing; acceptable international standards of hygiene; value added products; a design to fit the specific surroundings; arrangements to deal with waste. All gone.
US$650,000 was being made available by the Caricom Development Fund for provision of a deep water well, expected to rate 400,000 gallons per day. Is this still happening?
The Department’s own four man maintenance programme set up by Dr Daly to satisfy a need has been scrapped. That well known Department, Public Works takes over. If they do not give appropriate priority to, for example, the irrigation systems, blockages will cause mal or non function.
The Tent Programme where, previously, no charge was made by the Department to Government hirers, such as schools, has now apparently been handed over to a private concern, which will, naturally, charge for loan of tents. Was an audit completed before the transfer of assets?
Dr. Daly would have been invaluable to the Minister in carrying out wherever possible and sensible the CCM’s Manifesto commitments. Those undertakings are vague and generalised, and some practical sense would have had to have been made of them.
I welcome no. 18 ‘Promote and encourage the planting of trees, especially fruit trees throughout the island’. Surely this is already being done through the Department’s sale of various improved fruit trees and by their ten acre fruit farm at New River?
No. 19 reads ‘Implement a relentless buy local/eat local campaign’. Politicians for the longest while have been exhorting Nevisians to buy and eat local. To encourage that process, in 2007 Dr Daly created the brand ‘Buy Local –Department of Agriculture Certified’ . Earlier, then Premier Amory at the Department’s 2004 Open Day said ‘…if we produce our foods here and if we utilize what we produce we will be better off for it…. If we were to eat our locally produced mutton, beef and chicken in moderation we would have nothing to fear’. Mr. Parry during his Premiership said the same kind of thing.
So what is new? What is different? What is ‘relentless’? The School Meals Private Initiative has been trying for a good while to have the Administration employ a chef for the Charlestown Primary School. There are many vital reasons for this, but in this context, if people are to buy and eat local, they must be able to cook what they buy; can’t cook, won’t buy. Modern day life has seen a loss of cooking skills. The CPS chef will teach both children and adults. No. 9 fits in nicely here: ‘Encourage and incentivise the cultivation of primary agricultural commodities to satisfy the school feeding programme’. Fine, but entirely lacking in specifics. Is this now happening? What commodities? Will the schools take them? Without the hiring of a chef having overall director powers some school kitchens can and do resort to the supply of a (non) nutritious lunch consisting of a white bread roll and a chicken frank.
I understand that since April 2013 the Minister has added eight persons to his Departments payroll. Meanwhile the unfortunate Minister of Health has been unable to persuade Finance that a realistic salary must be agreed upon for employment of the already identified chef, now so critical to the proper functioning of the school meals programme.
In the CCM’s declaration of principle concerning agriculture they say: ‘…We believe that … a holistic and strategic approach has to be undertaken to revive agriculture, stimulate trade and industry and promote healthy life styles. The focus will be on import replacement of selected agricultural commodities’. This latter would be continuation of an existing key policy. Since 2007 the Department has been growing and actively targeting specific crops, including pumpkin, melon, cabbage, tomato, sweet potato, green pepper, and cassava for import replacement. Please mark, learn and inwardly digest the fact that the primary purpose of a nation’s agriculture is to nurture a healthy citizenry through the raising of healthy crops and livestock. Dr. Daly very well understood this, and was aware that keeping costs low and quality high was vital. A part of this was an integrated pest management scheme, replacing harsh toxic chemical sprays by more biologically friendly products such as neem and BT, rendering food safer for consumers.
It is a strange way to go about, in the words of the manifesto, ‘reviving agriculture’, by dispensing with the services and advice of the best man, throwing away a US$ 12 million grant, privatising the Department’s successful tent programme, and axing the Department’s own maintenance team, jeopardising various irrigation schemes.
Lastly, if the intention is, as stated, to encourage backyard gardening with appropriate incentives, please understand that the most important ‘appropriate incentive’ is implementation of pledge no. 7: ‘Reduce the monkey population to manageable levels by culling and sterilisation’. Since 2010,the Department in liaison with the police has culled over 5000. How is the Minister planning to improve or even maintain that level?
Syndicated columnist
*************************
DISCLAIMER
This article was posted in its entirety as received by SKNVibes.com. This media house does not correct any spelling or grammatical error within press releases and commentaries. The views expressed therein are not necessarily those of SKNVibes.com, its sponsors or advertisers
