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| Volume No. 1 Issue No. 46 - Friday August 15, 2003 |
The Challenges of Organic Farming
 by Kirwin Stephenson
The following is in response to an article appearing in last month�s issue on the need for Dominica to become a completely organic farming Nation. See Story.
We need to analyze the problem of our agriculture before proposing the solution. While there are opportunities for growth in organic agriculture, we need to observe what has happened to our conventional agriculture, including less farmers and very little bank funding for that sector.
The fact is we have failed to meet the requirements of a semi protected market in the UK with conventional agriculture because of the challenges involved. For the records, organic agriculture is much more demanding with regards to knowledge, labor and initial capital.
We may have a comparative advantage to get into organic farming because of the small nature of the farms involved, the absence of Black Sigatoka (a plant disease), fertile soils and a ready market in the UK along with Bananas. In addition, the question of technology is not an issue because in Kenya and other African states, organic agriculture and the associated research is well documented.
There are several countries where organic bananas are grown including the Dominican Republic, New Zealand, Australia, and Costa Rica. However, while growing organic is possible the question becomes how do we make it practical. We first need to change the education system and work with the youth.
It will take a long time to implement, legislation needs to be drafted and the culture of agriculture needs to change. Yes we have opportunities, but we have more challenges. When we can successfully overcome some of the challenges, most important our attitude to work, then we might want to talk about total organics in the next century.
Organics means much more hours on the farm. In Dominica, we presently have a problem where the average time spent on the farm is less than 3 hours, when at least 8 hours a day is needed to be a successful organic farmer with similar yields with a conventional farmer.
I personally think that with the dangers of chemical exposure both to the individual and the planet, the planning of agriculture to include organics would be highly compatible with our tourism product. Yes we can go organics but in a phased approach with all players on board targeting the high end of the market, but certainly it cannot be practical to consider the whole of Dominica going organic.
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