Agriculture and Fisheries

Agricultural production was greatly affected by the onset of volcanic activity in 1995. Between 1995 and 1997 all the major agricultural producing areas were either destroyed or deemed unsafe

for habitation and by extension for crop farming and livestock rearing. One major result of volcanic activity therefore, has been a decrease in agriculture’s contribution to GDP from 5.4% in 1994 to approximately 1.1% in 1998, 0.7% was contributed by agricultural sector and 0.4% was contributed by the fisheries sector. The number of persons employed in agriculture also decreased from approximately 300 crop and livestock farmers and 160 full and part time fishers before 1995 to 150 and 60 farmers and fishers respectively in 2000.

The Government of Montserrat has directed its policy towards achieving self sufficiency in certain foods and meat products in an effort to reduce the island’s dependency on imports and the outflow of foreign currency. Emphasis is being placed on intensifying the rearing of small ruminants and pigs and facilitating poultry production for meat and eggs. Emphasis has also been placed on encouraging agro-processing ventures utilizing local raw materials.

Fishing is another area of possible growth. The species groups traditionally exploited are the Shall Shelf and Reef Fish and the Coastal Pelagics. Both species are moderately too heavily exploited and are unlikely to support increased exploitation. The Deep Slope and Bank Fish are under exploited and the status of the Large Pelagics is mostly unknown but thought to be adequate to support further exploitation; these groups therefore offer great potential for increased exploitation.