2020/21 Budget Communication 2020-21 Budget Communication - Final (1)-compresse | Page 26

Food Security and Sustainability
Mr. Speaker,
As a nation, The Bahamas imports over 90 percent of what it consumes. In 2018, our total imports
valued some $3.5 billion, the bulk of which comprised machinery and transport equipment, food,
and fuel. This equates to roughly 33 percent of our average real GDP over the last five years. The
ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated the importance of pursuing food security to
ensure that we could meet some of our domestic needs at least in the short-term and expanding
over the long-term, and thereby reduce our dependence on imports.
Indeed, the lockdowns enforced by countries around the world have triggered a slowdown in
harvests, cutbacks in exports, and other factors that could disrupt the supply chain. Thus, it is now
imperative that we, as an island-nation, begin to revolutionize the way we view food security and
sustainability. According to the Department of Statistics, agriculture, forestry and fishing
accounted for less than one percent of real GDP, while manufacturing accounted for some 2.8
percent. Thus, in essence, the local production of food and other items in the domestic economy
was equivalent to less than 4 percent of GDP. As a country surrounded by water, with a myriad
of Family Islands with mass land availability, there is no reason why we cannot create, implement
and cultivate a 21 st Century plan to increase local production to sustainable levels, thereby
decreasing, and in some cases completely eradicating, our persistent dependence on imports for
consumption, while creating jobs within our economy.
Mr. Speaker,
To materialize this vision, the Government is considering a number of plans to increase the support
of local farmers, particularly in the Family Islands. The Department of Agriculture and Marine
Resources has already signaled that it is working diligently with local producers and domestic
importers to closely monitor any further supply chain disruptions. This has birthed the Emergency
Food Production Plan, which the Minister for Agriculture and Marine Resources would have
outlined in this Honorable House last month. This $1.6 million investment in food security in The
Bahamas will support the purchasing of hydroponic, and backyard kits, and the provision of farm
inputs.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Marine Resources has commissioned a Task Force to address
food security and substitution. The Government will also consider recommendations made to it
on this subject matter by or through the Economic Recovery Committee.
I can assert today, that this Government will make food security and sustainability a key priority
over the short to medium term, as a policy that will add value for years to come. To kick off the
push for greater food security, the Ministry of Agriculture has been allocated between its recurrent
and capital budget the sum of $9 million to begin to seed new and innovative projects in partnership
with Bahamian farmers and the broader private sector. This will indeed secure the future of
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