The President of the Bahamas Agriculture and Marine Sciences Institute (BAMSI) gave a preview of the 34th West Indies Agricultural Economics Conference being held in the capital this week.

Sen. Hon. Dr. Erecia Hepburn-Forbes spoke to national and international incidents that have impacted the availability of food. She said “I could go back as far as September 11th and then we had the Straw Market fire. People kind of tend to forget those incidents, how hard it was to get food on our selves then Dorian because that didn’t affect the entire Bahamas and only a subsegment everybody didn’t feel it the same way. But COVID-19 was the great equalizer and because of that I think people realize that hey if we grew some of these things it would not have been so hard for us because what you talking about now is some basic form of import substitution. Should we really be growing onions or importing onions when we can grow them so easily here. Why we importing coconuts, okra. I mean you throw okra seeds in the ground the almost spring up by their self with limit work.”

The conference, under the theme ‘Emerging Challenges and Opportunities for Food Systems: Climate Change and Tourism Nexus’, is being held at the Breezes Resort from June 4th to June 9th.

The post Regional Agriculture Conference Preview appeared first on ZNS BAHAMAS.