BASSETERRE, St. Kitts- One of the largest supporters of St. Kitts agriculture, the Embassy of the Republic of China on Taiwan, has voiced issue with the pace at which the Ministry of Agriculture was moving toward commercial farming; a position the Minister responsible for that sector does not share.
Speaking at a press conference yesterday (Mar. 18), Minister Hon. Cedric Liburd said that his ministry did more than just talk about boosting local food production.
“This ministry speaks positively, and we speak facts when we do things. Whether it is eat local or developing agriculture, whatever we say to you we mean it and we move towards getting it done.”
Taiwanese Ambassador Rong-chuan Wu had stated at the launch of a small-scale organic farm for youths in Half Way Tree that, “We want to see big commercial farms, and we have been asking the ministry to do so for some time now.” The Ambassador further stated that when persons do obtain larger farms, they are not properly trained on how to use the land efficiently.
The Federation has incurred astronomical debt since the 2005 closure of the sugar industry and serious concerns have been raised in the past about the Ministry of Agriculture not doing enough to make St. Kitts a self-sufficient nation in terms of food production.
However Liburd said he is doing whatever is necessary to plug the flow of “foreign exchange that we are losing in the country” due to minimal exporting of local produce.
He also asserted that his ministry was planning to put “all areas of agriculture on the front burner” in 2009 and such inefficiencies would be reduced.
“I want to start by saying that within the ministry we have now decided that there are going to be at least three major commercial farmers in St. Kitts—one in the area of food production, one in the area of livestock and one in the area of fruit tree crops.”
Luther Clarke’s farm near Estridge has been chosen as the “food production” farm, and Liburd said that EC $50,000 has already been dedicated toward cultivating the roughly 40 acres of land.
Though more specific details were lacking regarding livestock and fruit farming, Liburd said that infrastructure plans were being equally undertaken to make up for the estimated $30 million a year that is lost annually from the dormant sugar industry.
