BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – THE Director of Agriculture on St. Kitts, Melvin James, has expressed his Department’s willingness to assist in the development of Hydroponics in the Federation.
In a recent interview with SKNVibes, James explained that the Department of Agriculture has recognized the benefits of having Hydroponics in St. Kitts and Nevis.
This comes as the Federation and other countries continue to be affected by changes in weather patterns.
“We recognized that things like agriculture, hydroponics and shade house agriculture have a lot of advantages, especially as we speak about the impacts of global weather uncertainties.”
It was just last week that a five-nation project sponsored by the Organization of American States (OAS) had launched the CFBC/St. Kitts model of the Hydroponics Project in Nevis.
But Director James pointed out that they are currently focusing their attention on shade house structures; however, hydroponics is an area of key interest for the Department and they are willing to assist.
“We would assist persons who are interested in purchasing models, purchasing that type of material,” James said.
He urged local entrepreneurs to get on board with the Hydroponics Project which is being touted as the Federation’s way of lowering its dependency on imported foods.
“It is something that we are interested in and we will continue to provide information and try to encourage local entrepreneurs to get involved. In whatever way we can assist, we will assist them.”
Hydroponics is the method of growing plants with mineral nutrients in water with absence of soil.
At the launch in Nevis, Premier Vance Amory said the Hydroponics Project has been designed to provide an opportunity and a new concept in the vision of strengthening food security in St. Kitts and Nevis.
“By the transfer of knowledge we are aware that we could see new things happening, but the key for us is that we continue to innovate, we continue to create new initiatives. There is no better area in which one can create new initiatives than in the production of food,” the Premier said.
