Basseterre, St. Kitts, April 08, 2014 (SKNIS) -- The Ministry of Agriculture, Marine Resources and Cooperatives continues its effort to support small farmers via international agencies, as four, twenty feet containers, with ninety tons of fertilizer valued at USD $40,000 was donated by the Kingdom of Morocco.
This forms part of the ongoing agricultural diversification, productivity and profitability in partnership with other agencies that deals with agriculture and agricultural practices.
Acting Director of Agriculture, Thomas Jackson, deemed this donation to be timely and stated how such came about.
“This donation was as a result of a partnership among the Kingdom of Morocco’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation and the Moroccan Agency for International Cooperation,” he said. “It is a drive to reduce the cost of fertilizer for small farmers in the Federation.”
The present cost of a bag of NPK is valued at ECD $184; Urea: $222 and Sulphate $116. Essentially, a farmer with one acre of tomatoes or sweet peppers would buy five bags of each fertilizer; an investment valued at approximately $2610.
According to the Director of Agriculture (DOA), Thomas Jackson “the donation of the fertilizers is crucial to agricultural output and profitability as farmers would invest less cash into improving soil’s nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium content with the added fertilizers.”
He further stated that “this donation comes as part of the ministry’s continuing drive to fulfil its mandate in improving agricultural productivity and supporting small farmers.”
Approximately two years ago, officials from the DOA and other ministries participated in a round-table discussion with the Moroccan Agency. At that meeting, DOA officials noted that the main restriction to agricultural production for small farmers, in particular, was the cost of fertilizer.
Notwithstanding, the Moroccan Agency for International Cooperation is continuing its partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture with a Project dubbed “Mapping Soil Fertility for Durable Agriculture in St. Kitts and Nevis” which began in January 2014. Also working on this project are the Ministry of Sustainable Development, Caribbean Agricultural Research Development Institute (CARDI), Multi Purpose Lab, and the Nevis Island Administration’s Ministry of Agriculture.
This new project is expected to map the fertility of soils across the federation and would greatly assist farmers in knowing how much and what type of additional fertilizers may be needed based on location. The technical assistance project is currently in phase 3 (the literature review and data collection phase) of 12. Other phases include formation of a steering committee to manage the project, collect soil samples, technical training for officials in Geographic Information Service Systems (GIS) and Soil Mapping Agronomy in St. Kitts and Nevis. This will be complemented by extension courses in Morocco as well as plant and soil analysis by the Multi Purpose Laboratory.
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