KINGSTOWN, St Vincent: Kevoy Community Development Institute, a Jamaican NGO, which provides farm management and community development training, was listed among invitees to a regional smallholders crop production and marketing study visit in St Vincent and the Grenadines.

The Eastern Caribbean Trade Agriculture & Development Organization (ECTAD), through its newly formed Caribbean Farmers Network (CaFAN), in collaboration with international partners IICA, CARDI and WINFA, with technical support from the Taiwan Technical Mission on Agriculture sponsored the study visit to St Vincent from February 16 -20.

The programme, which was funded by the Technical Centre for Agriculture and Rural Co-operation (CTA), saw representatives from Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, and St Vincent and the Grenadines, as small farmers throughout the region met to discuss the existing challenges, best practices, market determination and developing mechanisation application.

Jamaica was represented by a three man team, which included Thomas Mayne of the Jamaica Agricultural Society, Gifton Griffiths of the Christiana Potato Growers Association and Arthur Green of Kevoy Community Development Institute

The study visit was set against the background for the Caribbean in real and practical ways to find sustainable means to feed itself while, through quality products, improving its market potential to higher levels of export earnings.

The group, which met in the St Vincent capital, Kingstown, is preparing to make representation to the next meeting of CARICOM heads in Belize through a position paper and is expecting to engage in further dialogue at the agriculture ministers’ level as a more comprehensive plan is being developed for and around the sector across the region.

CASTRIES, St Lucia: On Friday, rural farmers in St Lucia will be receiving a much needed boost when the Ministry of Agriculture Lands, Fisheries and Forestry partners with a Jamaican NGO - Kevoy Community Development Institute (KCDI) and other stakeholders to host a one-day seminar.

The Sensitization Seminar on the Rural Farm Management Training Program is scheduled to be held in Mon Repos, Micoud and the theme is entitled, "Supporting and Revitalizing Rural Farming - Building Communities."

This event is designed to assist farmers manage their farming lands more efficiently by utilizing best practices in environmental protection, farm safety and animal welfare, crop rotation, financial management of the farm including how to access funding, identifying the links between agriculture and tourism and applying proper marketing concepts to get their produce from the farm to the consumer.

Stakeholders include the Chamber of Commerce, Industry & Agriculture, the Ministry of Social Transformation, Public Service, Human Resource Development, Youth and Sports, the Ministry of Physical Planning, Housing, Urban Renewal, Local Government and the Environment, the St Lucia Bureau of Stands, St Lucia Hotel & Tourism Association and Non-Governmental Organizations.

Prior to the seminar on Friday, KCDI will be holding a special meeting with the stakeholders to introduce them to the role of KCDI and the Best Management Practice Project. The stakeholders will then play a vital role in assisting farmers with the program.

Donovan McLaren, Executive Director of KCDI insisted that since the buzz words are "food security" it is imperative that there is sustainability and stakeholders should play a major role in this program.

At this special session, Una-May Gordon, Country Representative of Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) will deliver the opening remarks, while McLaren will be the main speaker, where he will speak on the role of KCDI along with the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) in the Farm Management Training Project (FMTP).

In an interview with Caribbean Net News, Ruth Wilson, Project Director of KCDI, indicated that the idea is to ensure food security for the region and this can only be achieved when farmers will do farming as a business.

Wilson said that best practices in management which includes chemical use and disposal, financial management and record keeping, farmers and farm safety, animal husbandry, marketing and environmental best practices that can affect one's farming business will be the key components of the seminar.

She also told Caribbean Net News that if the farmers and stakeholders are willing to implement the program, the KCDI has a two-year period in which to see the successful completion of the project. The FMPT has been successfully tried and tested in Jamaica and presently the farming community are obtaining positive results.

The KCDI is confident that the program will enable the farming groups, livestock farmers, fisher folks, beekeepers, egg producers, vegetable farmers and the like to organize and improve the quality of their products.

Additionally, it will increase their income through greater Agricultural Best Practices (ABP) and marketing opportunities by strengthening their operational, management and marketing capacity.

The Farm Management Training program is co-sponsored by First Caribbean International Bank, the Ministry of Agriculture, Lands, Fisheries and Forestry and the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture.

Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;}

By Anselma Aimable
Caribbean Net News St Lucia Correspondent
Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it /caribnet