Food Security in The Bahamas

The Bahamas Government National Food and Nutrition Security Initiatives Set on The Front Burners

The Bahamas Government 2025/26 Budget Communication outlines initiatives for sustainable agriculture and food security throughout The Bahamas

By: LEDEDRA MARCHE

GRAND BAHAMA ISLAND , The Bahamas — In its thrust to prioritize food security, reduce the country’s vulnerability to rising prices and grow more of our food on the home front, the Government is making substantial and important new investments in developing agriculture.

Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, the Hon. Philip Davis revealed during the 2025/26 Budget Communication in Parliament on May 28, 2025 a recent Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signing to construct five hydroponic farms in the Family Islands and the capital to mitigate the high cost of living and the global inflation crisis.

“This past week, we signed an MOU to construct five hydroponic farms in New Providence, Grand Bahama, Abaco, Andros, and Cat Island as we embrace modern farming techniques that can provide healthy produce to even our most remote islands,” Prime Minister Davis said.

"Additionally, BAMSI is expanding its academic mission with 302 enrolled students and strategic partnerships with Prairie View A&M, Athens State, and Stanford University, providing the youth of The Bahamas with world-class educational opportunities.

“Of course, we are ensuring that scholarships are available for those who wish to launch careers in Agriculture and Marine Sciences.

"Overall, we are increasing support to farmers by 200% and expanding the overall agriculture budget from $25 million to $35 million,” he said.

With its expansion of grants to Bahamians, the Government’s goal is to create a new wave of successful Bahamian entrepreneurs, keep more Bahamian dollars inside the country and lower prices for families.

“We want both small-scale operations and larger food production companies – run and operated by Bahamians – to become much bigger players in our country and the region.  Twenty-first century farming does not look like the old days – this is big business,” Prime Minister Davis said.

With food security an important national priority, the Prime Minister added that the new Centre for Food and Nutrition Security will serve as a multi-disciplinary technical hub, advancing national food and nutrition security through cutting-edge research, policy development, innovation and community-based initiatives.

In the upcoming year, the centre will lead a series of transformative initiatives to strengthen national resilience and food sovereignty, which will include establishing urban farms and community food hubs to increase local food access, promote self-reliance and support neighborhood-based food systems.

It will also address health-related challenges linked to food insecurity; train farmers in climate-smart agriculture practices to enhance productivity while promoting environmental sustainability and resilience to climate change; and establish seed banks and promote native crop varieties to preserve biodiversity, ensure seed availability and support culturally appropriate food systems.

Prime Minister Davis noted that over the past year, his administration has transformed the country’s agricultural and marine sectors through decisive action and strategic investment.

“We launched our National Layer and Piggery Programme, distributing over 10,000 chicks and 3,000 adult chickens.  We also equipped farmers across Cat Island, Exuma and Acklins with tractors and other essential equipment,” he said.

The Golden Yolk Project, another major investment of the Government, has a large role to play in its plans for food security.

“We are investing $9 million in the construction of pullet buildings capable of housing 25,000 chicks, dual layer houses for 20,000 hens and an egg processing facility with capacity to process 8,000 eggs per hour,” Prime Minister Davis said.

Source

In order to put agriculture and the modern Bahamas in proper focus we must start from the very beginning

Bahamian Agriculture, an overview. Agriculture series, part 1

By JOHN HEDDEN
jondgaul@hotmail.com

Nassau, The Bahamas


RECENTLY, much has appeared in the media about agriculture, with senior politicians, pundits, veterinary intellectuals and the regular armchair philosophers making their comments and putting forward opinions.

However, I have seen no comment from the actual farming community about the status and future of farming. This may shroud the real issues involved, and so confuse the general public with rhetoric and other fancy words.

Before the reality becomes smothered I feel that as a genuine 'paper farmer' I can probably help cloud the issue even further.

In order to put agriculture and the modern Bahamas in proper focus we must start from the very beginning.

This first part deals with historical anecdotes and notes which cover geographical, topographical and climate issues, and basic soils and water availability. I have not included dates because these instantly put off any student of history.

However a journey into the well documented archives of our country will verify many of my statements.

In the beginning was the Lucayan, the Arawak, the Taino, peoples who should go down in history as the true Bahamians, and the only people who have sustainably harvested their food from the environment throughout this archipelago.

Unfortunately these people did not survive to modern times.

Since the arrival of the Europeans, and to the present day, no people in the Bahamas have truly subsisted on the products of the native environment.

Subsistence production during the many very lean years after settlement, relied on non-native species for the major food sources.

These introduced species include cassava, sweet potato, yams, pigeon peas, red beans, sheep, goats, and all poultry. Even the wild hogs of many islands were introduced as domestic breeds before going feral.

The early settlers on several occasions had to appeal to their colleagues on the US mainland for help with staple supplies to prevent starvation on many of the inhabited islands.

The purchase of the Bahamas by the proprietors, and the establishment of plantations on many of the more southerly islands, became short lived, because the thin dry, arid soils were unable to supply sustainable commercial harvests.

In most cases these plantations were abandoned to the slaves and servants to eke out a kind of subsistence involving the sea, and slash and burn methods of coppice (black land) and sandy (white land) cultivation.

To many of the islanders, the Nassau capital may as well have been in Lima, Peru, because communications and transport were non-existent.

The northern pine islands were not exploited to any degree agriculturally, mainly because the pine land was inaccessible, and the 'cap rock' was unworkable with traditional hand tools and manual labour methods. The pine areas were thus appropriately named "The Barrens", even though fresh water was close at hand.

Even the arrival of the Loyalists with their plantation approach resulted in a common survival in which the whites were no better off than their black brothers. All struggled to survive.
The Bahamas went through many years of the most basic provision for sustenance in order to stave off debilitating hunger, and the early church missions often rescued locals from imminent starvation.

Up until the 19th century, church and religious annals take account of the destitution and malnourishment existing in much of the settled Out Islands.

Less than 100 years ago, arrangements were made by the Colonial Service to accommodate workers through contracts in North America. All types of Bahamians took advantage in order to survive the depression and the Second World War.

Many of these migrant workers earned the name "American Boy" after returning with adopted American mannerisms.

Even today there is no continuity of agricultural production over the traditional "lifetimes of farming" experienced in other parts of the world such as Africa and Europe.

There was however a brief spell in our history when agriculture seemed destined to become a major contributor to the economy.

During the early to late 1800s, pineapple and citrus production became a major source of foreign revenue for the islands.

Farming in Eleuthera, Cat island, and southern Abaco became very prominent; as it did in the eastern part of New Providence.

Produce exported to North America and England made significant contributions to the islands' welfare.

However, the rise of Hawaiian pineapple and Florida citrus plantings soon put paid to that flourishing industry. A one cent tax was levied on each imported fruit, thus protecting the US producers.

After the end of the Second World War, the English government introduced the Colonial Development Corporation to various islands in order to foster growth through agricultural entrepreneurship.

The pineapple project on the best land in south Eleuthera failed because mechanisation removed the red soils and introduced raw limestone.

This area would later claim fame as the 'Charolais Ranch' that provided the US with it's prized French cattle breeding stock.

The Andros project failed because the fruit and vegetable land selected behind fresh Creek was a summer swamp when the rains came, and no number of pumps could keep the growing area dry.

It is ironical that here the water was pumped away from the crops, and not to them. Rice would not even grow in the perimeter canals and drainage ditches.

In addition, produce shipped out from Andros by barge did not even survive the journey to Nassau.

Over the years, attempts have been made to introduce sugar cane, large citrus groves, dairy, egg and poultry production to a non-existent agricultural sector.

Some survived for a number of years but mainly because protection against competition was the rule of the day.

In the modern era with the advent of Bahamian accession to the WTO and the apparent barring of protectionism in any form, bleak prospects for agricultural enterprise are looming on the Bahamian horizon.

Many feel disillusioned and upset over the lack of governmental input in order to save the tradition of farming in the country.

The reality is that apart from subsistence production purely for survival, the Bahamian agricultural sector is a myth and a non-contributor to any recognisable part of the economy.

In fact, since majority rule Bahamians have been actively encouraged to move away from agricultural and menial work into tourism and financial services. Today the perception is that agriculture is demeaning and subservient work, close to being on welfare.

The introduction of more modern technology has recently accounted for some apparently successful start ups, and renovated enterprises in Andros.

The use of more modern techniques, even basic ones like efficient irrigation, can dramatically improve yields.

Management of soil fertility and pest control are equally important. These issues will be dealt with in the following article.

September 17, 2011

tribune242

Bahamas Blog International