BADMC'S more for farming policy
Date: Fri 15-Oct-1993
Paper Page: 11
Publication: Weekend Nation
INTERNAL dicussions may still be going on to ensure the smooth running of the
new Barbados Agriculture Development and Marketing Corporation (BADMC) but its
mission and function are documented.
The BADMC is a merger of the Barbados Marketing Corporation (BMC) and the
Barbados Agriculture Development Corporation (BADC).
Minister of Agriculture David Bowen made it clear that even though the new group
encompasses the functions of both bodies, it is not intended to be a rehash of
what has gone on before.
"The role and mission of the BADMC is to assist Government in the execution
of agricultural policy through the formulation and implementation of programmes
which are service and development oriented, as well as of an advisory and
regulatory nature," Bowen said.
The BMC was created in 1963 by an Act of Parliament. Through the years, the BMC
established itself as the central agency to stimulate and improve agriculture
for the local producer.
With a definite accent on marketing, the BMC managed to secure several overseas
buyers, and maintained its reputation as a profit-making body.
For the first eight months of this year, the BMC exported 360 000 pounds of
non-sugar produce, earning over half of a million dollars. And the last annual
report stated there were plans to expand markets in Canada.
On the other hand, the Barbados Agriculture Development Corporation (BADC),
operated at a loss for some time, in spite of an annual subvention from
Government.
From 1982 to 1992, BADC grants totalled $31.38 million. In addition, the BADC
borrowed $22 million from the Barbados National Bank (BNB), primarily to finance
its sugar-cane operations.
The BADC was created by an Act of Parliament in 1965 to develop and manage
plantations and agricultural lands for Government. Its objectives centered
around stimulating agricultural growth. As recent as May this year, it was
reported that BADC was working at returning 60 acres of land at Haggatts, St.
Andrew, into a project for small farmers.
The fight to maintain non-sugar agriculture and further develop agriculture on
the whole will be taken on by the newly formed BADMC. Minister Bowen said BADMC
is intended to be a new viable organisation which, over time, will stand on its
own two feet.
"The corporation will have a broad-based mandate encompassing agricultural
production and marketing services and will be government's main instrument of
reform and rural development," Bowen said.
The BADMC will be organised into five divisions: administration, finance,
engineering, marketing and agriculture, as it seeks to carry out the functions
of these three categories.
The corporation's chief executive officer, Dr. Attlee Brathwaite, agreed the
merger is a timely one. He said the bringing together of the production and
marketing sectors will assist primarily in the flow of information.
Costs "Very often you produce without knowing what your markets are. If you
bring these two sectors together you will know what the other is doing, and if
you have to improve your marketing capabilities or not," he pointed out.
But how will it generate the income to carry out its functions?
Bowen has indicated that the corporation, through its own activity, will be
bearing most of the burden.
"As a developmental organisation, however, its developmental costs will
have to raise up-front capital and it is envisaged that the Government will be
injecting the allocation of $2.1 million to the (former) BADC in the 1993-94
estimates to the new corporation.
In addition, BADMC will be also running the various commercial operations of the
former bodies, which include the Bond, abbatoir.