Inclusive neoliberalism?

Abstract

Banana farming in the Eastern Caribbean has gone from riches to rags since the 1990s, as the region’s economic and social mainstay has severely contracted. This article reports on interviews conducted at the grassroots level with about 150 current or former banana farmers in Dominica and St. Lucia, and at the administrative level with numerous government and banana sector officials and other stakeholders. The interviews sought to answer two interrelated questions: ( a) How have farmers experienced and responded to this severe contraction in the banana export industry? and ( b) To what extent does current development policy support farmers’ economic needs? Indeed, many of the stated goals of the current development paradigm, referred to as ‘inclusive neoliberalism’, align with the farmers’ stated needs. We seek to understand the extent to which this development policy manifests itself at the grassroots level in the form of support that small farmers can actually use to help sell their products. Our interviews document multiple ways that banana farmers have been hurt by changes in international trade policy. The interviews also reveal a considerable gap between the stated desires and development policy priorities of farmers, on the one hand, and the impacts of development policy at the grassroots level, on the other. We conclude with suggestions on how to bridge the gap between inclusive neoliberal development policy and the needs of small farmers, who for decades have been the social and economic bedrock of Eastern Caribbean societies.