Basseterre, St. Kitts, April 22, 2021 (SKNIS): Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Marine Resources, Ron Dublin-Collins, showed his appreciation to farmers, fisherfolk, and agro-processors on April 21 during the virtual forum series ‘Leadership Matters’ hosted by Prime Minister Dr. the Honourable Timothy Harris.
Mr. Dublin-Collins said, “I want to commend our farmers, our fishers, our agro-processors, for the tremendous work that they are doing to ensure that we can produce even at the level that we are at right now.”
“For those who are partnering with the Ministry and Department to improve production, we understand that the challenges are many; we have begun the process of addressing them,” he said. “We assure you that we will continue to work with you to address these challenges.”
“We see the realities of what is happening on the farm as we visit farm to farm and we realize the challenges with pests and every other area,” said Mr. Dublin-Collins.
“The Ministry assures you we will continue to raise our standard in terms of our service to you and for you with our extension services and the other inputs where the government can cushion the cost to make it easier for you,” he said.
“The work that you do is tremendous and there is no doubt about it. Officials who go out on the sea so often and risk their lives to ensure that we get fresh fish,” he said.
“From the reports that we received from our own lab here in terms of testing our foods, our food is safe, and it is of a high quality and we want to encourage people to support local,” said the permanent secretary.
“I want to commend all of you and to advise that we continue in this process of reform,” he said. “We believe together we can reform the agricultural sector and change the realities with our import bill and strengthen the financial position of our farmers, our fishers, and our agro-processors.”
