SHYAMAPARSAD BISNAUTHSING
The governing principle of any Ministry or for that matter any successful company, be it a public or a private limited one, is that the Ministers define the policies while the civil servants, staff of parastatal bodies and the executives and personnel of the successful companies or private sector devise means and ways to execute those policies successfully while judiciously using all resources put at their disposal. These days it is being said openly that while politicians serve in a position for a limited period of time (at the most for 5 years), some senior civil servants and officials of parastatal organisations as well as their board members have become the permanent politicians. This explains the actual situation in the country. The bulky unfavourable reports from the Director of Audit (becoming bulkier every year), PAC Report, tricky Private Notice Questions at the National Assembly and negative press, both written and spoken, reports and reviews are ample testimony to justify the above statements. That is a side of the coin, while on the other we are shown on the media Ministers inaugurating huge infrastructural projects irrespective of who had started it and holding lengthy and vociferous press conferences boasting their merits and achievements. In case of Food Security, we are shown Ministers accompanied by Top Civil Servants and Advisors walking in a field and holding a few beautiful farm produce as if those have been produced thanks to the efforts put in by them. This is what some of the officers of the respective Ministries have been advising and telling them year in and year out, irrespective of who the Minister is.
While going through the past Budget Speeches, it has been observed that Government had put forward many interesting and promising projects which, if successfully implemented by the Executives, would have surely created an impact and changed the whole agricultural scenery. A few excerpts, amongst others, of the Budget Speeches are mentioned hereunder:
Budget Speech 2015-2016. Para.76. “To encourage production of bio food, we are introducing a ‘Bio Farming Development Certificate’. This will include a package of incentives […] We have the ambition of producing no less than 50 per cent of our total local food production according to bio norms.”
This Scheme was further mentioned at Para 74 of the Budget Speech 2016-2017. Mention was also made of the setting-up of a Heifer farm at Melrose by the Ministry of Agro Industry and funds to the tune of Rs.10 million was also earmarked at para 78. Para.74 of the Budget Speech of 2017-2018 highlighted the “potential for establishing Macadamia plantations in Mauritius as a new export niche and create new employment opportunities…”, while Para.75 was about coming up with a Food Processing Development Certificate for importations of products to be used as raw materials for processing and re-exports. Mention of Bio-farming Development Certificate was once again mentioned at para 97. Likewise many laudable projects were announced in the Budget Speech of 2018-2019. Those included (para. 61,62 and 68) “support to set up 100 farms over the next two years under the Sheltered Farming Scheme”. Those farms would have been accompanied by a number of interesting accompanying packages to facilitate all aspects of management. The project was put forth as an “import-substitution endeavour on a strong footing”. Construction of 100 more sheltered farms were announced at para 80 of 2019-2020 Budget Speech. How many of them have been constructed till date is yet to be known though some have been at Villebague and Plaine Magnien? The 2020-2021 Budget Speech announced a set of very ambitious measures at para 44, 45 and 46 which says “I am therefore announcing the inception of a comprehensive National Agricultural Development Programme. This program will promote the Farm to Fork concept, ensure food security and reduce our dependence on imports.” Mention was also made of a “centralised digital Land Bank of State and Private Agricultural Land” to be set up under Landscope Mauritius and made publicly accessible. Further, to support the measures at para 54 and 55, very significant responsibilities for the Agricultural Marketing Board were announced with set time frame.
If implemented…
Those measures (amongst many others) as announced, if implemented to at least 75%, would certainly have created the desired revolution in the food security and production of Mauritius. But unfortunately we are still at square one. No notable change or progress has taken place. A daily recently announced that the Mauritius Chamber of Agriculture is training 60 potential “agriculteurs” at the Regional Sugar Cane Training Centre, Réduit. The participation of FAREI had been enlisted. The reverse ought to have been true as FAREI has the necessary capacity in terms of its Training Division, infrastructure (School of Farmers at Wooton) and Training personnel. The Model Farms at Mapou, Flacq, Rivière des Anguilles and Plaisance ought to have been put in contribution to meet their defined objectives. As a matter of coincidence, a representative of the Mauritius Chamber of Agriculture was explaining the reasons of our inability to attain the level of Food Security in Mauritius. The pertinent questions to the Mauritius Chamber of Agriculture that should have been asked are : how much rotational land the Mauritius Chamber of Agriculture is currently placing at the disposal of planters as was the case some 25 or 30 years before? And what criteria are being used for distribution? How much land the Sugar Estates have converted into residential morcellements? It would have been interesting to get the answers.
With the ongoing declining trend of production in the whole of the Agricultural Sector is it not imperative to review the roles of Agricultural Services, FAREI and MSIRI? Point to ponder indeed bearing in mind the difficult prevailing conditions.
Proposed Strategies
The experience the world over has demonstrated is that impeccable agricultural supply chain infrastructure is key to a vibrant and competitive agriculture and agro-industrial sector. The piecemeal attempts so far of setting-up infrastructure for agri produce in Mauritius need to be replaced by a well-orchestrated effort by Government for a coordinated and integrated infrastructure development across all the different agro-climatic regions.
The State Land available under Landscope purview and also Rose Belle Sugar Estate and the recently acquired land by BOM and MIC from Omnicane will surely be a good starting pad. In order to spearhead the development of infrastructure facilities in an efficient manner, Government needs to plan the facilities required and proactively promote same. High priority needs to be given to supply chain infrastructure and support services for the agro-industrial sector to create world class infrastructure corridors integrated with appropriate transport connections, storages, auction centers and retail chains.
An illustrative list of such agri-infrastructure proposals is as follows:
1.Food/Agro Industrial Park;
2.Cold chain (Value addition Centre/ Agro Service Centre for Vegetable and Horticultural Produce);
3.Supply Chain Centre;
4.Production Farms (Sheltered Farms and Hydroponic Units);
5.Service Centre for Agricultural Produce;
6.Chain of Retail Outlets for Perishable Products;
7.Technology Incubation and Demonstration Centre;
8.Auction Centre – Transit/ Terminal Markets;
9.Transport Hub (Export possibilities).
It would be important and advisable to solicit the expert advice and services of United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) having successfully assisted in implementing many Agro Industrial Parks in different countries and different parts of the world.