The Democratic Labour Party (DLP) has reiterated its concern for the country’s agricultural sector, after Government’s recent announcement of a new housing development at Vineyard, St Philip, which proposes the construction of approximately 1 100 homes on some 80 acres of prime agricultural land at a reported cost of $300 million.

This decision represents another significant setback for agriculture in Barbados and raises serious questions about the Government’s commitment to food security, the party’s spokesperson on agriculture, Amoy Gilding Bourne claimed in a statement issued yesterday.

Gilding Bourne noted that once fertile agricultural land was paved over, it was rarely, if ever, recovered. She said at a time when Barbados continued to grapple with a growing food import bill and increasing concerns about food resilience, the continued conversion of productive farmland to housing developments was both shortsighted and irresponsible.