The
Development Planning Unit
Government of the British Virgin Islands

NATIONAL INTEGRATED DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY

Emerging Issues, Agriculture
(continued)

3.0  ANALYSIS OF THE EXISTING SITUATION

In the year 1988, the Government of the BVI took a policy decision to revive agriculture as a part of its programme to diversify the economy. Policies were formulated to transform local agriculture from semi-subsistence to a market oriented production system using modern production technologies available for intensive small farm operations. The new agricultural thrust not only looks towards import substitution but also food security and environmental preservation.

In view of this various services were introduced. Training of staff was undertaken, emphasis was placed on vegetable and fruit crop production and a programme was undertaken to provide farmers with basic resources such as land, water, roads, soil conservation measures, farm equipment and extension support.

Figure 2 shows percentage employment of the agricultural sector in comparison with construction and tourism sectors from 1960 to 1990’s.

3.1   PRESENT SITUATION

The performance of agriculture is still not satisfactory. However, some increase in agriculture production, although moderate, has been recorded for the past six years. The increase has mainly been attributed to the following:

i)  The government’s decision to revive the industry as part of its overall programme to diversify the economy by providing basic facilities like mini-dams, water troughs, road catchments, etc.

ii)  Effort of the Department of Agriculture in providing technical advice to farmers, supervision of the distribution of farm inputs and assistance to farmers in loan application to financial institutions.

iii) Linkages with the Tourism sector and health crase worlwide. Making local food fashionable.

The Table 2 below shows the number of facilities available to assist farmers.

Table 2
Basic Facilities Available to Farmers

The factors mentioned above have contributed to an increase in acreage and quantities of bananas, potatoes, cassava, vegetables and fruits. Also, an increase was recorded in livestock production. Quality of livestock has improved and the number of livestock has increased. The tables 3A-C show the trend of crop and livestock production overtime shown and their values.

Table 3
Agricultural Production 1989-1994.

A.   Crop Production

B.    Livestock Production

C.    Poultry Production

Source: Agriculture Department, BVI

The above production tables, indicates that agriculture can contribute much to the economic development of the BVI if the Government can be more serious and remove some constraints and obstacles facing the sector. A number of farmers and officials interviewed have indicated that they can more than double the current production level provided that the main obstacles are removed.

3.2 AGRICULTURAL CONTRIBUTION TO THE ECONOMY

At present agriculture contributes a relatively small percentage of GDP. The 1992 figures indicates that Agriculture, Hunting and Forestry contributed US$2,047,543 to the GDP, which is 0.59 percent of the total GDP of US$344,612,096. The previous year it contributed 0.61 percent, while in 1990 the percentage contribution was 0.62. Thirty years ago when agriculture was the main occupation of the people, agriculture contributed more than 60 percent of GDP. The decline of agriculture had been attributed by the prominence of tourism sector, offshore business services and other tertiary activities which attracted both financial and human resources away from agriculture. By looking at Table 5 below it will be noted that the trading industry/sector in contribution to GDP is the Wholesale and Retail trade which contributed 32.93 percent of GDP, Real Estate, Renting and Business Activity 14.90 percent, Financial Intermediation 13.31 percent, Hotel and Restaurants 11.80 percent.

Table 5
GDP Contribution by Industry 1990 to 1992.

3.3    EMPLOYMENT CONTRIBUTION

According to the Employment and Earnings Statistics of 1994, the total number of employees in the territory stood at 11,413. This is an increase of 1,384 employees compared with 9,982 employees in 1992. Out of 11,413 employees, agriculture sector had 6 employees (those employed by private sector) and about 147 self-employed full-time farmers. Twenty-three staff employed by the Department of Agriculture is not included in this group. They are under the Public Administration and Social Security. The gross earnings of work force from employment, which is also the wage bill of the economy, was $118.6 million, of this amount agriculture paid $48,912 to six employees or 0.04 percent of the total wage bill. This figure of course does not include earnings from 147 self-employed full time farmers. Tables 6 and 7 below shows the number of employees and earnings of employees by industry from 1990 to 1994.

Table 6
Number of Employees by Industry 1990 – 1994.

Table 7
Earnings of Employees by Industry, 1990 – 1994.

3.4    FOOD IMPORTS

In 1994, $23.18 million in food and food products were imported, which is 18.1 percent of total imports. This is an increase of 000 percent compared with the previous years, which was $22.25 million. By looking at the previous years’ trend shows an ever-increasing trend of food imports. The increase in food imports coincided with increasing demand by tourists and the local population in general. The largest categories in food imports bill continue to be meats, vegetables and fruits, and dairy products and eggs. The deficit in agriculture continued to widen notwithstanding the increase in domestic production as it increased by 5.67 percent to $1.94 million compared with the $1.43 million and $1.83 million recorded in 1992 and 1993 respectively. In this case the government should find ways and means to increase the production of agricultural produce in order to reduce dependence of imported food products. Tables 8 and 9 below shows the imports of food products in relation with other imports from 1990 to 1994.

3.5    FOOD EXPORTS

As far as the exports are concerned, BVI normally exports to other countries live animals including fish, sheep, goats and cattle. The value of these exports has increased from US$205,000 in 1990 to US$275,000 in 1994, and increase of about 34 percent. Which means more efforts is needed to boast the production of animal exports. See Table 10 for export figures.

Table 8
Imports by SITC Sections, 1990 – 1994
(US Thousands of Dollars)

Table 9
Percentage Distribution of Imports By SITC Sections, 1990 - 1994

Table 10
Exports by SITC Sections, 1990 – 1994
(US Thousands of Dollars)

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