Barbados’ prison system is making significant strides toward self-sufficiency in food production, a long-term initiative that could potentially save the government millions annually.
The progress being made at Dodds regarding food security was highlighted during a recent interview with Superintendent of Prisons DeCarlo Payne on the Public Affairs Department’s One-on-One programme. He outlined the ongoing efforts and future plans, which, according to him, align with the country’s commitment to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
“We were mandated through the Sustainable Development Goals… to ensure that the prison can be self-sufficient in crop farming, which includes all the different types of vegetables, fruits, meats and fish,” Payne said.
“Producing all those will help to ensure that our food bill goes down and also add to food security at the national level.”
He shared that the prison’s current food bill is approximately $1.5 million annually and while he could not provide a precise figure for potential savings, Payne is optimistic about the project’s impact, stating, “I believe the savings could run into thousands, if not millions.”
Although the prison is not yet fully self-sufficient, the Superintendent detailed the significant progress being made. He said a new irrigation system is nearly complete, with only the installation of drip lines remaining.
“Most of it is already in,” Payne noted, referring to the irrigation infrastructure. “As soon as that is finished, then we will have a fully operational irrigation system.”
The prison is also revamping its facilities for meat production.
“We’ve just overhauled the chicken pens and so on, and the areas where the animals are,” the prison superintendent said. “So, hopefully by the end of this month, we should be back to rearing chickens again.”
Revealing that plans are being made to share surplus food produced with other institutions, he said, “We’re already in discussion with the BDF [Barbados Defence Force] to ensure that we can supply them and then we’re looking to expand to the point where we can supply the QEH [Queen Elizabeth Hospital] and schools with meals if necessary.”
In addition to cost savings, the prison is focusing on improving inmate health, addressing concerns about noncommunicable diseases (NCDs).
A consultant dietician has been brought on board to help develop balanced meal plans.
“One of the things that we would have given assurance to the government [about] is that we would ensure that there are three days a week where there is fresh meat, and we have maintained that from the time we gave that commitment late last year,” Payne said.
“We are supposed to be making sure that we have the dietician working closely with our medical practitioners to ensure we reduce the old instances of NDCs here, and at the same time, feeding into the national approach to reducing and managing NDCs,” Payne said. (SM)
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