Striving for a healthier future in our own backyard!

In a world where more and more people are get­ting sick and the cost of imports are steadily rising, the chairman of the Baha­mas Agricultural and Industrial Corporation (BAIC), Bishop Gregory Anthony Collie, is calling on Bahamians to invest in farming as one of the keys to a healthier, wealthier future for the country.

The COVID-19 pan­demic has had many effects, among them, a rise in cottage industry, as more people are becom­ing entrepreneurs and coming up with innovative ways to provide goods and services necessary for the “new normal”. In this way, BAIC should be considered one of the vital govern­ment agencies for people to connect with. It is mandated to stimulate, facilitate and encourage the development of agri­culture in The Bahamas; to process the produce of agriculture, and to market the produce of agricul­ture within or outside the country. Bahamians seem to be responding well to the times. The produce exchange located at BAIC Headquarters on Old Trail Road, and the Farmer’s Market of Gladstone Road have seen a good increase in patrons look­ing for fresh, homegrown produce.

Farming

The next step, accord­ing to Bishop Collie, is for a major increase in Bahamians adopting the farming lifestyle as a means of self-sustenance. As for him, agriculture is “in the blood”. His mater­nal grandparents, Earnest Brice of Long Island and Beatrice Brice of Exuma. made their home in Mount Thompson, Exuma where they cre­ated a thriving onion farm. The young Gregory grew up with opportunities to spend time in Exuma with his grandparents, learning how to farm and appreci­ating the value of what can come from the ground.

In those days, he said, Exuma was the onion capital of The Bahamas, and many families grew onions on a scale large enough for export to the United States and other parts of the region. Back then, he said, different Bahamian islands would specialize in a specific agricultural product for export. Eleuthera was known for pineapples, for example, and Cat Island for tomatoes. He recalls learning that Sir Sidney Poitier’s parents, farmers from Cat Island, gained exposure to the United States because they were not only exporting toma­toes there, but visiting there as well.

Many opportunities abound from investing in agriculture, he said, and it would be good to see even more Bahamians take on the challenge to farm on a commercial level.

As current chairman of BAIC, he said: “I love the challenge of helping to reduce The Bahamas’ import bill. There are so many things that we import that we can grow. In the past, we have paid a disservice to agriculture, but the recent pandemic has brought it home. It has given us all the time to reflect, and to consider how we would sustain ourselves in the event we could not import.”

He also has heritage from Acklins Island and there, a thriving casca­rilla project – The Pine Islands Project – stands as a beacon of the kind of agricultural industry and commerce that can be repeated throughout the country.

His grandfather Theo Collie, and grandmother Anita Heastie, relied on the land and sea, enjoying the quintessential Baha­mian lifestyle. His father, Henry Collie, was born in Morant Bay, Acklins, where he lived before moving to Nassau where he met Lean Brice, Greg­ory’s mother. Even though he grew up on Quintine Alley just off East Street, the values of his grand­parents on both sides and their love for the land have inspired him to pro­mote agriculture, which he continues to do today. His cousin Anita is one of those leading the charge for the Pine Islands Pro­ject in Acklins. He pointed out that major global com­panies like Campari and Mary Kay cosmetics rely on the cascarilla plant as one of the raw materials for their products. With the implementation of the project, Bishop Collie says Acklins Islanders will have an opportunity to create by-products instead of just selling the raw material, which they have done for decades.

On June 18 Agriculture and Marine Resources Minister Michael Pintard announced that the Gov­ernment had approved the grant of 105 acres of land to the Acklins Islanders Cooperative Society to be used to grow cascarilla trees and to construct a processing plant for the extraction of essential cas­carilla oil.

One hundred acres of the land is in Hard Hill and another five acres is located in Spring Point. This land acquisition is part of the component of the Pine Islands Project which is focused on “Sus­tainable Livelihoods” for cascarilla bark cultivation and processing of casca­rilla oil in Acklins and Crooked Islands.

This is one of six activi­ties in the cultivation and processing of the cascarilla bark in the “Develop­ment and Promotion of Sustainable harvesting of cascarilla” The Pine Islands Project is funded through the Global Envi­ronment Facility of the United Nations along with the Government of the Bahamas and in-kind con­tributions from various agencies.

Global Envi­ronment Facility of the United Nations along with the Government of the Bahamas and in-kind con­tributions from various agencies.

In addition to agricul­ture, industry is also a vital part of the BAIC mandate. The corpora­tion seeks to assist in the creation and develop­ment of commerce and industry in The Bahamas; and to expand and create opportunities for Baha­mians to participate in the economic development of the country. BAIC is a one-stop-shop agency, ready to assist small busi­ness persons with business plans, research, sourcing funding, business advice/counselling, implementa­tion and follow-up. As an encouragement for the development of busi­ness in the Family Islands, start-up capital through small business window loans from The Baha­mas Development Bank (BDB), The Bahamas Entrepreneurial Venture Fund, and the grant of Crown Land are available to Bahamians

Bishop Collie is encour­aged by the Blue Project, presented by BAIC Gen­eral Manager Rocky Nesbitt. The BLUE Pro­ject stands for: “Building a Lean Uniformed Economic Network”. The plan, amongst other things, includes the intro­duction of KPI software to ensure the corporation is able to track, analyze and create timely reports within the Agri-business and Industrial sectors. This part of the project is already underway.

The increase in entrepreneurship in The Bahamas is also encour­aging for Bishop Collie, who took the same path in his youth and maintained a successful business for some time. After graduat­ing from Highbury High, the young Gregory got a job in a company then known as the House of Sales.

He started out cleaning the floors at that com­pany, and worked his way up to management. For some, that would have been good enough, but his ambitious drive and entre­preneurial spirit made him push all the way to owning one of their retail outlets. “You have to be focused and know what you want out of life,” he advised.