industry

Hello Pat,

St. Croix has some agriculture; The Senapol breed of cattle is synonymous with St. Croix and there are 2 farms there; Annaly Farm and Castle Nugent Farm. They actually exported this cattle to others countries because the cattle was known for its ability to resist disease and its ability to withstand heat.

Historically the islands began on agricuture; the colonies were under Danish rule the longest - and the Danes had many plantations for sugar, cotton, tobacco and provisions as well. The plantations days ended for varius reasons and there was never again large scale agriculture.

In the early 1900's up to the mid 1900's before tourism really developed many residents had small gardens for personal consumption and also there were farmers on the northside of St. Thomas that grew crops and some persons that had cattle, poultry, pigs... if memory serves me- there was a poultry farm in Tutu and a butcher shop- Hartmans was the name, there were lots of cattle and goats grazing in that area - Ronnie will correct me if I am wrong :-). It was very close to where the Tutu Park Mall is now. Magogany Run area also had lots of grazing lands... But with more commericalization and tourism people moved away from farming.

Today there are on St. Thomas a few persons ( French folks in Northside and the Rasfarians in Bordeaux area on the west end) that still farm and sell at local markets but not in large scale.

There is an agriculture fair on St. Thomas and St. Croix. St. Croix's university has a fairly large argriculture division... and for some time they were working on Aquaponics and Tilapia Aquaculture.

There are groups that try to promote farming in the islands, but the concept has not caught on - on a large scale. Reasons; commericialization, not many interested in the hard work farming requires, folks that question ability for island to be self-sufficient and produce enough to supply the market, inabilty of small farmers to compete with large grocery stores in terms of price and supply...

--Islander

The soil and weather make it tough to grow typical midwestern type crops like corn, wheat, and soy. Land is ultra spendy and it is very rocky. I have an herb garden and I have to water it every day. Water is very precious without any freshwater lakes or rivers. Then without the raw product obviously there isnt any demand for processing.
There is a farm in Coral Bay and they are big enough to supply STJ's restaurants and markets with greens and herb. They also do bring some over to STT. Probably one of the few things exported to STT from STJ.

Chris -

From your comments would I be correct in gathering that the Coral Bay farm is the only crop growing commercial farm in the USVI? What kinds of greens do they grow and is it all grown in soil or do they have any aquaponics/hydroponics?

Islander -

Do you know anything about the groups that are trying to promote farming -- any contact names? Also, is it your impression that USX' agriculture dept. is still actively persuing the aquaponics program or has that faded?

David...

No, the farm in Coral Bay is not the only farm... but I think you gathered this from my other post.

As for things grown, some are grown more then others;
yams, potatos, pigeon peas, lettuce, tomatoes, pumpkin, sugar cane, dasheen, peanuts (I knew only a couple people that grew peanuts), peppers of various types, larger fruit treess like Mangos, papaya, sugar apple, soursop... herbs like theme, basil, rosemary... had a couple folks that had bees - and sold fresh honey.

Most of the people on St. Thomas that have small farms are older generation folks of the French community and the Rastafarians of the west end... the farming is in the soil. They sell their produce at local markets... not grocery stores although the Fruit Bowl on St. Thomas often will buy from local farmers to sell... many set up a little booth roadside and sell their fresh produce that way.

As for groups...

St. Croix:
Agriculture Research Station - (340)778-1312
Farm Service Agency (340)773-9146
Local Government Agriculture Office - (340)778-0997

St. John
(340)776-6274

St. Thomas
Local Government Agriculture Office (340)774-5182
Agriculture Office (340)776-2787

Here is a Dept. Of Agriculture site, not sure if its current but has some info..
http://www.usvi.org/agriculture/

Here is some info. I found on $$ alloted for research.
http://www.griffin.peachnet.edu/sare/states/USVI.pdf

You can find the St. Croix Agriculture Research Web Site at
http://rps.uvi.edu/AES/aes_home.html
on this site there is a link to aquaculture where there is a list with contact information for the researchers/professors - perhaps contact them for details (yes it is still active). there are also articles written about their research and agriculture on St. Croix. I think you will find much information at this site.

Hope this information helps.

--Islander

There is also a group (on St Thomas) called We Grow Food Inc. They have built reservoirs for irrigation and are working on increasing yields, etc. They just celebrated their 10th year. Look in the virginislandsdailynews.com 8/18 for the article.