Time for Agriculture to take priority says Liburd

By Joyette Mills-Ward
Business Reporter -SKNVibes.com

Hon Cedric Liburd

The press briefing, held at Government Headquarters, Basseterre was attended by local media personnel who, following his initial statement, posed questions to the Minister on various topics which fall under his purview.

When questioned about the recent sale of the Central Marketing Corporation (CEMACO) and the effect it would have on local farmers who, in previous years, had depended upon the government entity to market and sell their produce locally and regionally, the minister said that measures had been taken to address that issue.

“I indicated to you that we had submitted three project proposals to the Council of Ministers of Agriculture; one of those project proposals is a packing house. ~~Adz:Right~~

That packing house will now be where all of the farmers will have an opportunity to take their produce and it will go through cleaning, washing whatever it is, packaging and grading- all of it, to reach up to not just local standards, but up to the international standards. When that is finished, the packing house will also have the capability of marketing the produce throughout and without St. Kitts.”   

The minister also indicated that the area opposite St. Kitts Sugar Manufacturing Corporation (SSMC) on the island’s main road had been designated as the location for the packing house.

“As Minister of Agriculture I was really pleased that I had the opportunity to go to that meeting, because it is the first time that I am seeing a group coming together where we are saying ‘here is a golden opportunity to help our farmers’. Not just by going and making a proposal but we are getting a response which will say that this proposal will be looked at within 31 days. And if we are able to do that we will be able to see the farmers benefitting in a very quick way. We are hoping that the farmers will be benefitting in the areas of seeds, machinery, supplies and fertilizer.”

The minister informed that in July 2008 he had signed off on a project proposal worth US $250,000 which would be coming from a 1.7 million US dollar fund created by the Food & Agriculture Organisation (FAO) at the just concluded World Food Summit which is to benefit regional farmers.  He said the project is already approved and farmers in both St Kitts and Nevis are expected to benefit in the form of inputs and seeds.

“We the Council of Ministers recognise that if we are going to develop agriculture, that the funding of many of our projects through this move that took place in Honduras will see agriculture coming back on the front burner,” the agriculture Minister added.