Local farmers, fishers honoured
Agriculture Minister urges persistence to overcome challenges

By Melissa Bryant
Reporter-SKNVibes.com

BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – MEMBERS of the agrarian community went out in support of each another when they attended the annual Farmers and Fishers prize-giving ceremony at the Basseterre Abattoir on Thursday, October 23.

The event signalled the end of World Food Day celebrations and was held under the theme “World Food Security: The Challenges of Climate Change and Bio energy”.

Local farmers and fishers were in yearlong competition, with the Ministry of Agriculture staffers imposing periodic inspections to assess their progress. The winners received monetary prizes of varying amounts totalling EC$60 000.

Representatives from the crop farming, livestock farming and fishing industries gave brief presentations outlining the current realities of their respective professions while urging the government to “level the playing field”.

“Input has gone into other industries and when it is compared to that which has gone into the agriculture industry, one must ask if the government is serious or if all of us are just wasting our time. 

For something to grow it needs the resources necessary to maintain and sustain it. Agriculture is our only means of survival; a nation’s food is a nation’s future,” said Solomon Morton, a local crop farmer.

Minister of Agriculture Cedric Liburd responded to the criticism levied by insisting that much had been done in the industry over the past year, pointing to the contract signed between the St. Kitts Marriot Resort and Royal Beach Casino and the Farmers’ Association, and the EC$ 1.4m that the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) had distributed to local farmers in 2007 to assist them in the purchase of fertiliser, feed and other inputs.

Minister Liburd stated that figures reaching him estimated that Hurricane Omar wreaked over a half million EC dollars in damages to the farming and fishing industries, and encouraged those gathered “to persist and to overcome the challenges”.