By Betty Vedrine, Guardian Senior Reporter, betty@nasguard.com

The government has several incentives in place to encourage Bahamian farmers to supply food staples in the country," said Minister of Agriculture Larry Cartwright.

"The government will always assist people in their agricultural venture through various programs such as duty concessions," said Cartwright.

Responding to the current food crisis which is affecting the world, Cartwright said that aggressive measures may have to be taken in order to encourage local farming. "There are many persons who may want to get into agriculture, so we have to do things to encourage that," said Cartwright.

He added that many young people have shown an interest in farming, especially the greenhouse technology.

The minister explained that farming is not without its challenges, however, as it calls for a lot of physical labor and a sound budget. "There's a lot of work to be done to keep the farm clean," he said. "You also need money for pesticides. For harvesting, you need labor and when you harvest you need a market," he noted.

Cartwright said that his ministry is currently looking into finding ways to minimize losses to farmers in the event of natural disasters and other misfortunes. "One of the things that we've been working on is something known as crop insurance," he said. "When you farm, if there is an accident and you lose your crop you want to get back something. The government cannot give back everything."

He said, however, with crop insurance farmers will be able to recover some of their losses. Emphasizing the need for education in agriculture, Cartwright said that many seminars have been conducted recently to train farmers on effective farming techniques. "We conducted

seminars in the Family Islands on food processing products," he said. "Out in the islands where we have packing products, we can bring those pack home."

He said the government is considering putting the first government-sponsored processing plant in Exuma.

"It would be government- sponsored but run by the Exuma Growth Association," he said. "We are looking at providing building and equipment so if you are a tomato farmer, you can go and bottle your produce and this will in turn help pay rent."

Cartwright also encouraged Bahamians to farm at home, reminiscent of what was the norm over a decade ago.

"We have to try to get back to where we were 10-15 years ago where we planted our own bananas, limes and peppers," he pointed out. He explained that due to the temperate weather conditions in The Bahamas, a variety of crops can be grown here.

"We normally look at our winter, the cooler months starting in November to March," he said. "These are months when we can produce most of our vegetables. These vegetables include corn, tomatoes, onions, peas, potatoes and cassava."

Cartwright also discussed the challenges that the country has faced with farming chicken. He emphasised that the problem has gotten out of control, adding that innovation is to the key to making this business a reality in the country.

"You can import chicken cheaper than you can produce it in The Bahamas," he said. "The challenge in chicken farming is that we have to import the grain that we use as feed. We can grow the grain but no one produces it."

He explained that the challenge that exists with growing chicken feed is the limited amount of farms in the country.

"There are only three farms here so the demand is not great for a person to venture into exclusively growing grain," he said. "The best scenario is for individual farmers to grow their own chicken feed."

Cartwright also suggested that Bahamians may have to join other countries like Jamaica, Haiti and Guyana in producing rice.

"We used to grow rice in Andros before so we would simply be reintroducing it to The Bahamas."