Interesting views of Lalit in week-end newspaper :
“We must first correct this false impression. When we talk about agricultural production, we imagine that it is a small sector that can be satisfied by giving subsidies on fertilizers, seeds and materials for fruit and vegetable greenhouses. This support is necessary, but the objective should not be agricultural production - especially vegetables on a small scale.
Lalit believes in producing on a large scale: basic foodstuffs, not only for the local market, but for export. Agricultural production on a large scale requires that we use the land that today is planted with cane to produce the sugar that is no longer -we have known for a long time- a sector with a future. Looks like the Mauritian in general has not yet integrated this economic reality. We have decreased cane production by half, but the government continues to subsidise cane growers, who continue to get a guaranteed price for each ton of sugar product. In this country, we can continue to subsidize cane, but there is reluctance to encourage the planting of other staples.
The other small planters do not have, like cane planters , a guaranteed price for their products. It is good to subsidize the price of rice and flour, but we must not forget that these are imported products, and that it would be much more logical to subsidize products that can be produced locally instead of import.
The galloping inflation will soar when the subsidies are removed. It is for this reason that it is necessary to have a solid project and the necessary drive to produce staple foods. But thinking about producing locally remains a slogan that we put in every budget without creating the necessary conditions to make it prosper. The subsidization of imported basic products reduces the possibilities of producing local products.
Go to a supermarket and look at all the refrigerated products that we import and that we could have produced locally. Despite the millions of square kilometres of sea, we continue importing fish from all over the world and pay for them with foreign currency! We import « des capitaines et des cateaux » available in our sea from European, African or Asian countries! Though our government is symbolically trying to get back our Diego Garcia via its international mobilisation efforts…. it is doing nothing to show that it wants to fully and concretely exploit our maritime zone. The best way to start would be to build a fishing industry like our neighbors did……
Indeed, the development of this additional pillar of growth , the Ocean Economy, will have significant positive impact on other industries including land and sea transportation, cargo and port services. The Ocean Economy could turn out to be one of the most important future contributors of GDP.
Equally interesting is this apt observation on food security by the ex-Soley Ruz leader/founder , published today in one of our local newspapers…
"Don't be stupid?
Discussions on food security very often reveal a total misunderstanding of the real issue. For too long political and economic leaders have thought that the right approach is to produce what we are good at, i.e., sugar, and with our foreign exchange earnings import food - 75% of our consumption. Since the 1980's, economic globalisation and its Siamese twin, neoliberalism, have become the be-all and end-all of economic thinking and consequently food security is conceived in terms of basic and elementary economic mantras such as 'Supply and Demand', 'Economic Advantage' and 'Economies of Scale'.
Shelve your Economics textbooks and try to think otherwise. With GLOBAL BURNING (worse than global warming) and CLIMATE CRISIS (worse than climate change) humanity has to chart a new road to sustainable development in harmony with nature. It’s a simple question of 'DO OR DIE'. We need nothing short of an agricultural and cultural revolution. What does this entail?
A NEW CULTURE
1. Eat what we can grow. We cannot grow staples such as rice and wheat but we can replace them by breadfruit, jackfruit, potatoes, sweet potatoes, maize, manioc and arrow root. We can make flour with manioc, maize, breadfruit, sweet potatoes etc. You don't need wheat flour to enjoy your bread, chapati, dalpuri or farata. You only need to be creative. No need to reinvent the wheel. Already, talented Mauritian chefs are offering delicious manioc faratas and galettes.
2. Difficult times have revealed the inventive and creative power of our brothers and sisters in vegetable, fruit and herb production. We can move to a much bigger scale.
3. We must encourage free range animal husbandry in the production of good goat meat, chicken and egg and not promote ruminants which release a lot of methane.
4. We must replant our mangrove forests to improve supply of sea food (fish and crustaceans).
5. Dependence on sugar must be reduced and industrial cannabis promoted. Let the sugar barons drown in their molasses and let us assist small and medium planters to innovate and consolidate reform and food security.
6. An agrarian reform is much needed.
7. Healthy eating must become a national concern. Because of unhealthy eating, 45% of our population are overweight or downright obese and 25 % have diabetes and associated pathologies.
8. We must move away from globalisation to regionalisation and localisation.
WHO WILL BELL THE CAT?
The government in power and the main opposition political parties are ideologically tied to neoliberalism and globalisation and it is futile to expect serious positive actions from them. Lalit and to some extent Rezistans are aware of the urgent needs to change but the admirable people prefer business as usual. Donc, ce n'est pas demain la veille ! "
Could the measures announced in this budget for our agro-industry be a game changer ? But we wish it was more down to earth with necessary conditions to move forward and with provisions that could be implemented easily while ensuring a new mindset on agriculture and healthy eating habits.
We will be waiting to see govt going about implementing the provisions or is it just another one of those « effets d’annonces » - our yearly budget ritual of a futile long list of measures just « pou tap la tab » ?
