Agriculture and its setbacks on the island of Puerto Rico.
By Ricardo Loubriel
In the case of a local emergency or a global one — a natural disaster or something made by humankind — importing food would immediately be affected. Therefore, the first sources of food would be crops produced locally.
The Caribbean island of Puerto Rico, located 207 miles east of the Dominic Republic, produces between 15 and 20 percent of its own local crops.
That is to say, at least four-fifths of its food is imported.
The island has enough space to produce different crops, but this space is often covered by abandoned buildings over which the government has control.
Puerto Rico’s citizens have begun to educate themselves about agriculture and its benefits. In the same way, the island’s different universities are promoting programs focused on agronomy.
Residents have begun to practice the modality of home gardens. Rina Cortés and Josué González are both retirees, having each worked for La Autoridad de Energia Electrica de Puerto Rico for nearly 30 years.
Cortés and González decided to build a home garden three years before retiring, “Planting for myself what I’m going to eat, I save money and I have something fresher without chemicals,” Cortés said.
The disparity in numbers of imported products compared with those produced on the island is a source of frustration for González. “We are wrong — the government has not done its part,” he said. “Instead of doing urbanizations, this land should be taken to cultivate.”
So far Cortés and González’s home garden has produced sweet potatoes, bananas, lettuce, tomato, carrot, plantains, pineapples, cabbage, basil, rosemary, eggplants and avocados.
“In here the agriculture is something profitable,” Cortés said. “I understand that the people in Puerto Rico are becoming aware, but in the schools, it is necessary to encourage it more, and even the prisoners should work the crops. One of the possibilities would be that the harvest worked by the prisoners fed our school canteens.”
Matilde Plá, a retired professor from the University of Puerto Rico of the medical science precinct, was born in Utuado, one of the towns where agronomy is most practiced and the home of the University of Puerto Rico campus, which now has a baccalaureate program aimed at agriculture.
Plá is more optimistic than Cortés and González about the prospect of Puerto Rico harvesting more products locally.
“That number will change if it continues with the practice that I am observing at this time,” she said. “But the taste, the smell, the texture of the plantain imported from Santo Domingo is not the same as that harvested in Corozal, P.R. I have faith that it will improve.”
At the same time, Plá expressed her thoughts regarding how the government’s current financial crisis affects the agriculture industry.
“Apart from the economic situation there may be, there are several factors that make agriculture grow,” Plá said. “One element that I consider important is the creation in Puerto Rico of the agronomist, of the professional.
“We have, for example, the University of Puerto Rico in the precinct of Utuado, where they promote agronomy but also the commercialization, the business, the industry and there are farms of strawberries on the island in Barranquitas,” she continued. “The most important thing is the attitude of the farmer.”
People are not only practicing the modality of home gardens in their private properties. In fact, different communities work together and volunteer to maintain a garden that belongs to that specific community.
Gianna del Mastro has a bachelor’s degree in education focused on the Montessori philosophy. Del Mastro, 26, works as a volunteer in the garden of the San Mateo community in San Juan.
This project started right after Hurricane María. A group of community members gave their time to clean the surroundings of an abandoned house and turn it into a seeding.
The orchard of the San Mateo community has about eight work stations to labor the crop, and they depend on volunteers to maintain it.
“We are like a silent revolution,” said del Mastro, “Our plan is for each community to do the same.”
Another community that is working with crops is the Venus Gardens High School in San Juan, which organized an orchard in a lot of the school promoting the studies and practice of cultivation.
Vanessa Seijo is one of the teachers who runs the program at the school. “The primary mission of the community garden is for students to learn to work the land and respect it. The development of orchards, not only in the schools but in the community and [the students] in their communities as well,” she said.
Apart from the role that the different communities or citizens are assuming, there are also academic offers aimed at agronomy in various Puerto Rican universities.
The Utuado campus of the University of Puerto Rico offers a Bachelor of Arts in Sustainable Agriculture. Andre Sanfiorenzo, a professor at the Utuado campus, recognizes that agriculture on the island faces challenges but is at a competitive level in some categories.
“I would say the milk industry is well elaborate, [also] the plantain, for example,” Sanfiorenzo said. “Other sectors are less developed, such as the vegetable sector or the livestock sector.”
Sanfiorenzo said the focus of the university is to develop agro-entrepreneurs who in the future can develop their projects.
Other citizens do not share the same point of view. Jaime Arauz is an agronomist who has worked with different crops since he was 6 years old because his father was involved in the agriculture industry.
Arauz owns his own gardening business and as an agronomist has been an advisor to private farms and nurseries such as Monsanto. He said the situation in Puerto Rico is not as the media has described it.
“Agriculture is delayed,” he said with a tone of frustration. “The news media say they are growing, or there is a boom, but the truth is not like that. There are thousands of farmers who are waiting for federal aid after Hurricane Maria, and at this time the small farmers have not yet been paid to.”
About the academic offers, Arauz said it is crucial to promote business development among young people who are studying or recent graduates of the different agricultural programs, since many of them up working for the government or private seed companies.
“Of the students who graduated, they do not have the remotest idea of establishing a business because the government has no idea how to organize the land,” he said. “Many want to work for the federal department of agriculture or seedlings for fear of losing their jobs.”
Arauz agrees with Plá and Sanfiorenzo that Puerto Ricans prefer to buy local products when they go to the supermarket.
However, Antonio Muñiz, a 22-year-old student who works part-time in the food industry, assures that restaurants regularly use imported products.
“I have worked in different places, and [I have observed] how in the purchases the majority of the merchandise is imported instead of harvested here on the island,” Muñiz said.
After numerous occasions of trying to make contact with government officials; to receive any information or their point of view regarding the subjects and the concern of the citizens, they did not respond back.
Despite the barriers that the government may face at this time, be it financial crisis or the recovery of a natural disaster, there is a movement on the part of citizens to promote education and cultivation practices.
