Interview with Barry Nourrice, chairman of the Agricultural Producers’ Association of Seychelles (Apas) |13 May 2020

Mr Nourrice

‘We must have a structured system of production’

The chairman of the Agricultural Producers’ Association of Seychelles (Apas), Barry Nourrice, has seen the local agricultural sector in every lenses possible: as a civil servant, producer, consumer, head of an association and as an academic.

In an interview with Seychelles NATION recently, Mr Nourrice shared his perspective in regards to agriculture in Seychelles, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Over the years the agricultural sector has faced a significant amount of challenges. There hasn’t been an effective structure in the country to propel the sector to greater heights – these challenges were highlighted in the recent comprehensive plan for agriculture so even the government acknowledges that,” Mr Nourrice started off.

“It has been neglected to the point of total collapse. Because of this it is now difficult to pinpoint what is a COVID-19 problem in agriculture and what is not since issues have accumulated and accumulated.”

He noted that Apas has been attempted to address a myriad of concerns such as taxes, marketing and the system of production in the country.

At present the production methods local farmers are using are neither comprehensive nor symbiotic which is why there is no coherence in production and availability of food products, Mr Nourrice added.

“The local market cannot have a period where we have a lot of pumpkins one month and then none at all the next month. We must have pumpkins, or other produce which are not seasonal, available at all times. For this to happen, we must have a structured system of production.”

“Same applies to eggs, there are times where there are so many eggs that the price falls to R1 and months were we don’t have a lot of eggs which makes the price go up.”

He also observed that, as a whole, the agricultural sector has not been much impacted by the abrupt halt to the tourism industry.

“Many people think that a lot of big producers were benefiting enormously by selling their produce to hotels but that is not at all true. These big producers have always sold the bulk of their meat products at their own shop, catering mostly to the community. Rather, it was the medium-sized and small farmers that were providing to hotels, and they are the ones who have called me because of zero sales. The impact to large-scaled farmers have been comparatively minimal.”

“Instead large farmers have seen an influx of vegetables which they are buying from small farmers and selling.”

He noted that large farmers have tended to be demonised because the alleged impact they have on the agricultural sector which he noted “is not the case’

Mr Nourrice also sits on the high-level committee food security which he states is working towards setting up the necessary mechanisms to get agriculture back up and running, and ensure that the sector remains sustainable.

Although the pandemic has brought about of lot of misfortunes, Mr Nourrice notes that it has also presented the country with an opportune moment to revive the sector and, as a result, to ensure that more money remains in the economy.

“It’s do or die at this point. We do not have much of choice but to make a change,” he concluded.

Elsie Pointe