STATE MINISTER for Agriculture, Errol Ennis, said the agricultural sector should be re-engineered to generate the level of production and income needed to drive sustainable social and economic development.
Mr. Ennis, who was making his contribution to the 2006/07 Sectoral Debate in the House of Representatives on July 5, said that, "We need to see significant improvements in efficiencies in doing what we are accustomed to doing."
According to the State Minister, "What we need to do is to lift the production functions significantly. We now have to use a lot more technology, a lot less labour and really become high tech in what we do, so as to afford the level of returns to our people engaged in those activities."
EXPLOITING SYNERGIES
Mr. Ennis said the nation had to be deliberate in seeking to achieve rapid economic growth in real terms. "We have seen and admired the examples of several third-world countries such as Costa Rica and Brazil, which have demonstrated that this can be accomplished by exploiting the synergies between agriculture and other modern sectors of their economies, thereby enabling agriculture to become a major catalyst in rural, as well as national economic and social development," he told colleagues.
The State Minister stressed that this new paradigm of rural development must extend beyond agriculture. "We need now to design our economy in such a way as to integrate agriculture with other sub-sectors, particularly the tourism sub-sector," he said.
SECURE A FUTURE
He noted that areas such as entertainment, educational services, offshore banking, shipping, transportation, knowledge-based activities and arts and culture, were some of the emerging sectors, which "must be rapidly developed to afford our nation a prosperous and secure future."
Mr. Ennis said the development of these sub-sectors should be appropriately integrated into the commercial agricultural activities, offering opportunities for real growth. He noted that activities such as organic production, apiculture, fisheries, aquaculture, coffee, fruit and vegetable, goat production, herbs and spices, hydroponics and horticulture, all represented exciting areas for the country's sustainable economic and social development.
