Robert Hall - Father of Diversification

 

Sir Robert Hall was born in 1909 and served the nation of Antigua and Barbuda in many capacities before his death in 1994. He was knighted posthumously by the new UPP Government [C C1] .

He is perhaps most widely known for his service as a Progressive Labour Movement (PLM) parliamentarian, as founder of the Antigua and Barbuda Democratic Movement (ABDM) and as an outspoken opponent of the various ALP governments during his time as leader of the Opposition.

However, Robert Hall was Deputy Prime Minister and served as the first Minister of Agriculture under George Walter in the PLM government of 1971 to 1976. As Minister of Agriculture, he lead the way in making many fundamental changes to agriculture during his five years in office. Some of the more important changes that he spearheaded were:

1. The revitalisation of Agriculture as a significant component of the economy.

2. The diversification of agricultural production away from an almost total focus on sugar production.

3. The involvement of small farmers in the production of vegetables and fruits. Over 1.5 M lbs of vegetables were produced by small farmers in 1975 and purchased by the Central Marketing Corporation. An export programme was started and several hundred tons of vegetables were exported to Canada, the US Virgin Islands and other countries. Pineapple production was increased from 7,400 pineapples in 1970 to 555,000 in 1975.

4. Revitalisation of cotton production, increasing production from just over 11,400lbs in 1970 to 240,600 lbs in 1973 and over 600,000 lbs in 1975, by which time over 200 small farmers were involved.

5. Formation of an integrated Ministry of Agriculture by amalgamation of several unrelated departments. These included the Research Department at Dunbars, the Sugar Board at the Sugar Factory, the Livestock Division at Olivers, the Irrigation Experiment at Claremont and the Peasant Development Office.

6. Other developments in the Ministry of Agriculture included:

· Establishment of the Lands and Surveys Division to regularise the demarcation of land and carrying out the first cadastral survey of all lands in Antigua to establish ownership and boundaries.

· Setting up of the Food Processing Unit at Dunbars

· Establishment of the Christian Valley Tree Crop Propagation Unit

· Development of the Bethesda Irrigation project providing a number of farmers with 3.5 to 5 acres of irrigated land.

7. Assisted fishermen by the construction of a new fish market providing cold storage facilities and fishing gear for purchase at discounted prices.

8. Establishment of the Antigua and Barbuda Development Bank to provide credit to farmers and others involved in Agriculture and Fisheries on preferential terms to stimulate investment in the Sector.

9. In the livestock area, the Government livestock herd was increased from about 50 animals to over 200 by 1975 and the genetic base was improved by introduction of Holstein and Sene-pol breeds.

10. Provided land titles to hundreds of persons, some of whom had been waiting for many years and introduced legislation relating to a number of areas such as Land registration, wildlife protection and the marine environment and tax concessions on investment in Agriculture.

Robert Hall was a successful farmer himself and operated a dairy herd as well as sheep by which he supported his family for a number of years after he had left the Ministry of Agriculture and before returning as the Minister. He started work as an Agricultural Cadet in the early 1930’s and worked his way up to the position of Manager of the Friar’s Hill Experiment Station, where he made many changes to the Government Livestock herd.

He was a man rooted in the soil of Antigua. He saw the potential of small farmers to produce the food that Antigua and Barbuda needed to feed itself and started the move to free them from the estate agriculture that had dominated the Sector until then.

He was also a man of vision who understood the need for farmers to own land in order to become successful and the benefits to be gained from technological improvements to agricultural production methods. Never has Antigua had such a champion of Agriculture!