Barbados Launches 16-Crop Programme to Boost Local Agriculture

The Ministry of Agriculture has begun signing farmers on to a 16-crop programme projected to generate some $84.4m in wholesale value, as Barbados moves to cut its $80m to $100 million imported primary produce bill, officials confirmed on Wednesday.

Contracts are now being finalised with participating growers under the initiative, Chief Agricultural Officer Paul Lucas told Barbados TODAY.

The programme is a coordinated effort between the ministry’s technical teams, its specialised planning unit, and the state-owned farming enterprise, the Barbados Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (BADMC), aimed at delivering long-term economic gains for agriculture.

“The dollar value based on our reports, based on the wholesale prices, we have it calculated at around $84.m,” Lucas said. “I believe in the long term, it allows us to cut costs and as much as we can, the objective is that we continue to reduce the amount of imports if possible.”

A central element of the strategy is targeting crops that are well suited to local conditions, with four already identified as requiring minimal imports due to strong domestic output.

“It must also be noted that of these crops, the 16 crops, there’s actually four that we import minimally,” Lucas said, identifying the crops as cucumber, cassava, sweet potato, and yams. “Those are examples of things that have been grown traditionally here and perform well, or the farmers are able to produce quite well.”

To support production, the ministry is providing key inputs and infrastructure — including water storage tanks — ahead of planting. Farmers entering the programme are also guaranteed a market for their produce, reducing exposure to price fluctuations and post-harvest uncertainty.

“For those farmers who want the guaranteed market at the end of the day, we are able to help those persons,” Lucas said. “They have a guaranteed market. So there’s no real loss in terms of what they would have at the end of the day in terms of marketing as such, because that is already taken care of.”

The initiative has already driven renewed interest in crops such as onions, supported by new infrastructure, including a BADMC onion drying facility. Inconsistent weather had made post-harvest curing risky for farmers, discouraging production.

“Since that has been put out there into the public domain, there’s been a renewed interest,” the chief agricultural officer noted. “Before that, there was always a concern in the post-harvest stage that they would suffer losses because of the drying process where you’re not always certain about the weather.”