suggests that 91% of Virgin Islanders surveyed feel that it is "im-
portant" or "very important" for government to exert efforts to
expand agriculture (Mills, 1979), and the conclusion by the
Department of Agriculture that very few young people are cur-
rently involved in, or entering, farm production (1979). It iden-
tified the obstacles in the path of new farmers to be the
unavailability of land, inadequate capital, and lack of
technological assistance. Padda (1979) also singled out the lack of
trained personnel, a shortage of labor, inadequate supplies of
water and insufficient marketing facilities as factors that inhibit
the development of agriculture and which contribute to its
decline. Still, the moribund state of agriculture in the territory
cannot be attributed to a lack of effort on the government's
behalf as the following evidence indicates.
 Existing policy includes the following initiatives taken by
government:

 1. A sorghum production subsidy in the form of a direct pay-
 ment of $40.00 per acre to farmers who cultivate land in
 sorghum;
 2. A 95% exemption from real property taxes for land of-
 ficially certified in use for agriculture;
 3. A 90% reduction of tax on income derived from
 agriculture to any applicant who is certified;
 4. The provision of a number of direct services to small farms
 (like land preparation, fertilizer, seeds, and slips);
 5. The enforcement of zoning and building regulations to
 minimize the relentless pressure from residential and com-
 mercial encroachment (Mills, 1983); and


 6. The acquisition of land primarily for farming purposes,
 such as the purchase of the Harvland property for $6.4
 million.
 In the final analysis, it is patently obvious that, given the over-
whelming priority accorded to tourism in the local economy,
agriculture in general will never be able to compete as a viable
enterprise in the market place in the foreseeable future. Yet this is
not to be considered an endorsement of a dirge over agriculture.
On the contrary, it is to emphasize that it would be misleading to
treat agriculture solely as a business in the market economy. The
severely limited land resource dictates that even at the cost of heavy
subsidization by both the local government and federal farm pro-
grams, agrarian land should be protected from further encroach-
ment by nonfarm uses. The simple view is that land devoted to
agriculture is a far more desirable use than the several other com-
peting uses with their potential for closing off the "commons,"
introducing visual blight, or despoiling the environment.
 The frustration of agricultural officials is clear evidence that the
existing package of tax incentives, subsidized in-kind services,
and input prices are quite inadequate to stave off the continual
infringement on agrarian land. It appears that nothing short of a
full and conscious policy commitment by the highest levels of
government, expressed in deeds and not political rhetoric, re-
garding the role that agriculture is to perform in the future
economy of the Virgin Islands, will arrest the persistent slide that
will make agriculture, by the year 2000, a thing of the past. For it
is worth repeating that once agricultural land is committed to an
alternative use, it is extremely unlikely that it will ever be re-
turned to the productive agricultural domain.


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