Customer Reviews

Agriculture in the Bahamas: Historical Development 1492-1992

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Before the Europeans arrived in the Bahama islands in 1492, the agricultural system developed by the Island Arawak people comprised shifting cultivation of starch and sugar-rich foods, garden plots, hunting fish and fauna, and collecting fruits. It has not stopped changing since. In AGRICULTURE IN THE BAHAMAS, the author, who was Director of Bahamas' Agriculture from 1973 to 1982, reviews agriculture before Columbus and the colonial centuries, tracking social and institutional transition from subsistence to a plantation economy. Until 1950, agriculture was the major employer and export earner, but now tourism dominates a largely urban economy, and finances a massive food import bill. Diets are based on imported preferences (Florida is only 30 minutes away) and agriculture strives to meet seasonal demand. Bahamian agriculture has been compressed to a state of uncertainty and is vulnerable to the dictates of the WTO, where "the interests of rich, industrialised countries outweigh those of small nations."

This book is a labour of love, is tender and thorough with a nation's agricultural history, and is fraught for its future, "shrouded with challenges of unknown dimensions." A tale for how many ACP states?