Basseterre, St. Kitts, May 19, 2021 (SKNIS): During his speech at a beekeeping exhibition at the National Museum on May 18, 2021, Minister of Agriculture, Honourable Alexis Jeffers, said his ministry is committed to the beekeeping sector in the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis.
The exhibition was held to promote World Bee Day which is observed annually on the 20th of May as a means to celebrate and shed light on the importance of bees to the world.
Minister Jeffers said, “Most type of plants that will flower from time to time requires some pollination and the bees are the ones who do that work and so it is important for us to pay close attention to this particular industry which is the beekeeping and the honey-making industry.”
He continued, “Let me first and foremost say that the challenges that we have had over the years are quite a number of them I must say, and one of them in truth and in fact, (is that) bees have suffered over the years because of the excess use of pesticides here in the Federation and we are trying to cut down on this.”
The honourable minister also stated that pesticides are not the only challenge when dealing with beekeeping as “there are other challenges such as the removal of various vegetations from areas that were once what we considered harbouring grounds for bees.”
“There is also the increasing industrial agriculture and as you would know persons are clearing land for various agricultural fields and we want to ensure that we are providing to our budding beekeepers and those who continue in this particular area some positive characteristics that they can lean on in this particular fight,” he said.
Minister Jeffers told the stakeholders within the beekeeping sector that his Ministry is willing to support them in their business endeavours.
The exhibition was held by the Ministry of Tourism in collaboration with Otis Jeffers of the Produce Delight Ecological Farm where they shared information about bees and the process of operating a bee farm, as well as displaying products such as honey and its derivatives.
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