THE WONDERFUL STORY OF BAMSI

We want to congratulate the Minister for Agriculture and Marine Resources Clay Sweeting on the stellar accomplishment of passing the Bahamas Agriculture Marine Science Institute Act on Wednesday 16 February in the House of Assembly and the next day in the Senate. The act incorporates  BAMSI into a public corporation which allows it and its board to make decisions and to enter into agreements.  The  bill got the unanimous support of the House and the Senate.

What emerged from the debate was the story of an election campaign waged by the Free National Movement in 2017 where they used propaganda to turn good into bad.  By the time the general election was held in 2017, the FNM had caused people to think that BAMSI was a burnt out building in Andros. 

You may remember that an arsonist burnt one of the buildings down.  He was convicted for it. Yet  because it was discovered that the contractors insurance had lapsed on the building this was turned into the fire was the PLP’s fault.  That dominated the general election.

In the FNM, the truth never interferes with a good story.

The truth though is immutable and these are the facts.

BAMSI was the vision of the former Prime Minister Perry Christie in fulfillment of a pledge by the former Prime Minister Lynden Pindling to have self-sufficiency for The Bahamas in food production.  It was a step in the right direction.  It trained farmers.  It helped improve the plant and animal stock.  It even sold some products to market.  That is the PLP’s record.

Contrast that to the FNM.  Under Hubert Ingraham subsidies were removed from farming and capped at 9000 dollars per person per year.  They then removed the protective tariffs that existed on vegetables and chicken and pork during the winter time.  This caused the collapse of agriculture.

Now the FNM leadership says well that was a mistake and they support government  intervention in agriculture but prefer Private Public Partnerships.  The PLP says the government must drive agriculture.

Apart from that though, everyone sang from the same hymn sheet on BAMSI.  We wish the Minister well.