Manager of Policies, Markets and Information Communication Technology (ICT) at the ACP-EU Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Development (CTA), Lamon Rutten, told the meeting of the Caribbean-Pacific Ford Forum in Barbados on Thursday that the concept of an agricultural development bank is a non-starter.

Mr. Rutten argued that if the State gives money to farmers at subsidized rates, you are not creating the entrepreneurial spirit in farmers.
He is quoted as saying; “Banking is a business and it should be a profitable business and it can be a profitable business. If you are a good farmer, you can make good profits; you can make honest interest rates. People who require subsidized interest rates are not encouraged to improve the economics of their business.”

You don’t need to be an expert in economics to know that Mr. Rutten is coming from a position of neo-liberal economics. His speech was a subtle plea for the State to stay out of the creation of an agricultural capitalist class. His analysis comes at a time when the Guyana Government is planning to reinvent one of President Burnham’s innovative approaches to post-colonial development – the agricultural bank. One hopes that Mr. Rutten’s advice is not given any serious consideration by New Garden Street.

Any analysis of international trade would show that farming and business subsidy occurs in the most advanced capitalist countries. European Union farmers have been subsidized since the EU was first known as the European Common Market. Beet sugar farmers are subsidized as a matter of state policy. One wonders how serious Mr. Lutten is when researchers have Google at their finger tip. Just Google the entry “Government subsidy to corporations,” and you will find tons of research material on state subsidy to private businesses.

The US as a matter of policy assists technology companies because US lawmakers know that the cutting edge in American technology keep it ahead of all other countries in the world. Surely, Mr. Lutten must know that Silicone Valley was not started without the assistance of the American Government.

I still cannot believe in the age of Google Mr. Luten can say what he said at the Barbados conference. For example, I Googled the following entry; “European farming subsidies,” and I came up with a huge cache of material. The first one to pop up was a July 1, 2013 column in the London Guardian with the caption; “Farming subsidies: This is the most blatant transfer of cash to the rich.”

Reading the article would make you instantly dismiss Mr. Lutten’s contention. Now please be reminded this was the first item that popped up in my search, and it is a graphic account of the vast sums the EU spends of farm subsidies. Had I continued the search, I probably would have found more damning evidence of mountainous financial assistance to European farmers.

So why is Mr. Lutten lecturing Caribbean Governments on the inherent failure of agricultural development banks? Because that has been the pattern of IMF operations in the Third World – “Do as we say.” A first year economics student would know that the IMF prescriptions for the Third World have failed badly since the end of the Second World War.

Now we have globalization whose main fulcrum is the World Trade Organization. Has globalization worked for the Caribbean? Can it work when bananas are produced by ultra-technological methods by ultra rich American companies (like Del Monte) and come into the Caricom countries costing far less than the bananas from Caricom states?

Mr. Lutten’s words were not the only eye-raising information that came out of the conference. The Executive Director of the Caribbean Export Development Council, Pamela Hamilton, told the audience that the Caricom region last year spent US$5 billion in food imports of which US$49 million went to import pepper sauce. How does the Guyana Government feel about that? This country can export top class pepper sauce to every Caricom island. Go to any supermarket in Guyana and you will find a huge variety of imported jams and jellies, mostly in flavours of strawberry, raspberry, grape and orange.

The Third World has some products, especially in agricultural areas that are good in comparison with advanced capitalist counties. Jams and jellies come to mind. So is coffee. So is rum.
Guava is generally regarded as a fruit that makes better jams and jellies. The tiny common market of the Caribbean known as Caricom imported $5 billion of imported food stuff last year. I wonder how V.S. Naipaul’s face would look when he sees that figure. Is Caricom a failure?