Basseterre, St. Kitts, November 13, 2015 (SKNIS): The Agricultural sector has faced three major problems for the year 2015. According to Minister of Agriculture, the Honourable Eugene Hamilton, speaking on the Government’s talk show, “Working for You” on Wednesday, November 11, 2015, the agriculture industry has had to grapple with severe drought conditions, over population of monkeys and the lack of persons willing to work in farming.
Describing these threats in detail, the agriculture minister explained that “monkeys have come to the low lands to farms and have destroyed crop after crop creating havoc for some of the farmers. That is one significant threat. Apart from that kind of threat, there is the water threat. Lack of water. As you are aware, for this year we have had the worst drought for the century.
By July we had only experienced nine inches of rainfall. The worst year before that was twenty six inches. Everything that you planted practically was being parched. If you go today to the supermarket to look for sweet potatoes, you will find none and that is because of the drought situation. Then of course, one of the threats is really the human resource threat; whether or not we find young people gravitating towards farming.”
The minister further explained that his ministry has taken steps towards alleviating these problems. Speaking about some of these efforts, Minister Hamilton revealed that the ministry “has sought to join with persons who are already trapping monkeys and over the next year or so there will be a concerted effort to reduce the population of monkeys out there. We believe that we can reduce it by a hundred, maybe two hundred per month and give the farmers a breather to grow their crops.”
With regard to the water situation, Minister Hamilton explained that there is no surface water because of the drought. He noted that his ministry has taken the initiative to build more dams for the purpose of ensuring that there are additional water sources around farms.
The agriculture minister revealed that his ministry has been working in partnership with the St. Kitts Nevis Agricultural Youth Forum, in efforts to promote the industry to young people. The minister explained that efforts so far have been successful. He said “it is a joy to see the young people so involved in this field.”
He also said that these problems are being monitored and that his ministry will continue working to alleviate these issues.
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