• Covid-19
  • Travel Protocols
  • Immigration & Customs Form
Friday, May 9, 2025
SKNIS
  • Home
  • About
  • Press Releases
  • Parliament
  • In The News
  • Bills
No Result
View All Result
SKNIS
No Result
View All Result
Home Featured

50 persons including farmers, extension officers and youth trained in Integrated Crop
Management under Protected Cultivation Systems in Barbados

SKNISEditor by SKNISEditor
July 6, 2022
in Featured, Press Releases
50 persons including farmers, extension officers and youth trained in Integrated CropManagement under Protected Cultivation Systems in Barbados
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

5 July – Bridgetown, Barbados – The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
(FAO) recently partnered with Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security to implement a
regional project that include four Caribbean countries to promote innovative, adapted and
sustainable protected cultivation systems to grow high value and nutritious vegetable crops.
This project has been designed to help the Caribbean Small Island Developing States (SIDS) face
challenges which make them vulnerable to food insecurity, including limited land mass and
population; lack of arable land; high vulnerability to climate change and natural disasters and
high dependence on food imports, coupled with limited economic sectors.
As part of the project activities, FAO led a training workshop in Barbados on protected
cultivation systems for 50 participants including farmers, extension officers, and agriculture
students. The workshop was facilitated by FAO’s Agricultural Officer, Melvin Medina Navarro
and raised awareness on the importance of integrated crop management as an approach to
obtain high yields. Important aspects to increase the efficiency in managing factors such as
climate, soil, water, nutrients, seedlings, pest & diseases and cultural practices will be covered.
Navarro explained, “Different levels of adaptation have been found among recipient countries
from imported greenhouses to locally adapted production system for tropical climate
conditions. Observed outcomes indicate that adaptation brings sustainability while importation
without adaptation results in abandoned structures”.
The project aims, through a value chain approach, to address and optimize existing production
systems, post-harvest practices and marketing of high value vegetable crops with a strong
component on capacity building to strengthen local knowledge. While noting that it is
important to raise awareness of farmers and extensionists about different production factors
and how their interactions affect yield, Navarro added, “In the case of plant nutrition the
training will include the different practices and technologies that are adapted, considering local
context to increase efficiency in the use of nutrients. This is particularly important in the face of
the current fertilizer crisis”.
In the Caribbean, decreased crop yields and incomes due to extreme climate events, water
scarcity, land degradation, pests and diseases, limited access to technical assistance,
appropriate inputs, financial resources and markets can be overcome by increasing the
efficiency and resilience of horticultural systems for small-scale farmers. This can be achieved

by adopting context-specific and cost-effective technologies. The project is setting minimum
standards of technical specifications for designs of structures and covering materials to be used
for adjusting existing systems and as guidelines for new greenhouses in the region.
Keeley Holder, Chief Agricultural Officer with The Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security,
stated, “This support from FAO is essential because it moves the needle on protected
technologies beyond the excitement of using innovative technologies, to their suitability for our
hot and humid climate, suitability for recovery after a hurricane, suitability for farmers pockets
and suitability for profitability. A technology is a tool and it is only as good as it user and
therefore this training is necessary to assist farmers in developing their technical skills, because
growing in a protected environment comes with a different set of challenges from the open
field”.
In closing, Navarro made an important observation, “I have seen high-tech greenhouses with
high level of investment obtaining low productivity when adaptation to local conditions is not
incorporated and/or there is a lack integrated crop management. Low cost systems when well
adapted and managed can offer functionality to grow crop year round and provide more
opportunities for savings recover investments faster.”
The training is important to know the different factors and how their interactions affect yield. In
the case of plant nutrition the training will be timely delivered and include the different
practices and technologies that are adapted, considering local context to increase efficiency in
the use of nutrients and to minimize the effects of the current fertilizer crisis.
Over the last three weeks, similar workshops were held in Grenada and St. Kitts and Nevis, with
the final one held in Antigua and Barbuda.

Related posts

CARICOM FOREIGN MINISTERS WELCOME EXPERTISE AND LEADERSHIP OF SAINT KITTS AND NEVIS’ DR. DENZIL DOUGLAS

CARICOM FOREIGN MINISTERS WELCOME EXPERTISE AND LEADERSHIP OF SAINT KITTS AND NEVIS’ DR. DENZIL DOUGLAS

May 8, 2025
ASPIRE Financial Literacy Day 2025 Set to Empower Youth Across Saint Kitts and Nevis

ASPIRE Financial Literacy Day 2025 Set to Empower Youth Across Saint Kitts and Nevis

May 8, 2025
Previous Post

 Communique – 43rd Meeting of CARICOM Heads

Next Post

Global Professional Development Opportunity Available for CARILEC Members Advancing Clean Energy

Next Post
Global Professional Development Opportunity Available for CARILEC Members Advancing Clean Energy

Global Professional Development Opportunity Available for CARILEC Members Advancing Clean Energy

WHAT'S HOT

CARICOM FOREIGN MINISTERS WELCOME EXPERTISE AND LEADERSHIP OF SAINT KITTS AND NEVIS’ DR. DENZIL DOUGLAS

CARICOM FOREIGN MINISTERS WELCOME EXPERTISE AND LEADERSHIP OF SAINT KITTS AND NEVIS’ DR. DENZIL DOUGLAS

May 8, 2025
ASPIRE Financial Literacy Day 2025 Set to Empower Youth Across Saint Kitts and Nevis

ASPIRE Financial Literacy Day 2025 Set to Empower Youth Across Saint Kitts and Nevis

May 8, 2025
VACANCY NOTICE – QUARRY WELDER

Vacancy Notice – Environment Crime Analyst Consultant

May 7, 2025

BROWSE BY CATEGORIES

  • 2025
  • Attorney General, Ministry of Justice and Legal Affairs
  • Bills
  • Featured
  • Featured Ministry
  • Government Projects
  • Home Page Slider
  • In Focus
  • In The News
  • Interviews
  • Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Marine Resources; Cooperatives; Entrepreneurship and Creative Economy
  • Ministry of Education, Youth; Social Development; Gender Affairs; Aging and Disabilities
  • Ministry of Foreign Affairs, International Trade, Industry and Commerce and Consumer Affairs; Economic Development and Investment
  • Ministry of Public Infrastructure, Energy and Utilities; Domestic Transport; Information, Communication and Technology; and Posts
  • Ministry of Sustainable Development, Environment; Climate Action and Constituency Empowerment
  • Ministry of Tourism, Civil Aviation; International Transport; Employment and Labour; Urban Development
  • Notices
  • Parliament
  • PMO Press Releases
  • Press Conferences
  • Press Releases
  • Prime Ministers Office, Ministry of Finance; National Security; Citizenship and Immigration; Health and Social Security
  • Register of Voters
  • Round Table
  • The Cabinet Secretariat, Cabinet Secteatry
  • Uncategorized

LIKE US ON FACEBOOK

Facebook Pagelike Widget

LOCATION

St. Kitts Nevis Information Service
Government Headquarters
Chruch Street
Basseterre
St. Kitts
Tel:(869)467-1416

FOLLOW US

  • Government of St. Kitts & Nevis

© 2020 St. Kitts & Nevis Information Service. Developed by E-Government Unit

No Result
View All Result
  • Home

© 2020 St. Kitts & Nevis Information Service. Developed by E-Government Unit