Good idea. We need (more) diversification from bananas. Also, more diversification away from agriculture itself. We also need to develop the necessary infrastructure, eg good access roads, shipping links, airports, incentives for capital investments etc. Then there is the good catch phrase on economics of scale. Pound for pound, promegranates may be more valuable, but what type of volume and commitment is needed to make it profitable and what are the logistics, shipping and market requirements? How is Dominica best positioned to take advantage of that? It takes deliberate strategy from the leaders. I would dare say that the Ministry of agriculture has no shortage of those ideas (possible crops for diversification) from its agricultural economists, agronomists, feasibility projects and research data it has gathered over all these years…It comes down to political priorities. One of the questions will also be how do you sell the ideas to the farmers, when farming in general is becoming less desirable? The youth do not see it as something to aspire to, it seems.

Going back to pomegranates, if the economics prove it to be feasible, the idea seems like a good one. There are many products made from that fruit too..including juices, skin and hair care products, flavors, medicinal uses etc. Domica’s climate can sustain many products in demand.

I remember there was a time (only 20 years ago) when the crop aloe vera was similarly attractive ..There were fields of aloes and even an aloe vera plant on island. But this fizzled out after a few years. In theory the island can grow many crops successfully, but the marketing and related costs may be a factor in moving forward. what lessons have we learned from that? Could that be a useful case study for high-schoolers?

Another question might be how intensively do we need to develop the service industries like tourism. How much would that detract from the policy of agricultural diversification from bananas? It can be argued that one complements the other..We have no choice but to invest more in the area of sustainable tourism or be left behind. Again service quality is key. Welcoming smiles alone won’t cut it.

Part of the deal in diversification of the economy is also to invest more in quality education. The youth seems to have the mentality that its future is overseas and one does not have to be innovative or work hard to succeed. We have so much good talent out there. Dominicans must have some hope, that many things can be sustained on island. Its easy to preach eat what we grow and grow what we eat etc, but it will also take conditioning in an institutional or systematic way to encourage it. However I think that organic farming has much potential. The main issues seem to be cost of production and cost of marketing/transportation, but again, these can be channeled into supplies for the tourist trade. We must however infuse the same quality concerns for those products that had been a requirement of the banana trade.

Lastly I hope that the reunion activities this year will spur greater involvement of the diaspora. Not just in terms of ideas, social connections/belonging and the economic boost it will have on the country this year, but also in terms of hard future investments. We know there are many Dominicans out there who have the means of providing or raising funds for investment, but do not have the confidence or motivation enough in giving it a shot in the economy of their home country. We all have to encourage those possibilities.

I sent in a a post several weeks ago, but it is worth repeating its gist: Capitalism in the US goes in cycles. Wealth builds with greed operating in unregulated areas. Then the houses of cards collapse. Then political reform introduces regulation. And then the sharp operators find new unregulated areas in which to operate and the cycle begins again.