BASSETERRE, St. Kitts, August 2, 2023 (SKNIS) – Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries, Marine Resources and Cooperatives, the Honourable Samal Duggins told the nation that the local farming community stands to benefit tremendously if the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis successfully attains the goals set out under the CARICOM 25 by 2025 Agenda.
Minister Duggins reported that his ministry launched its CARICOM 25 by 2025 Initiative on July 27 that outlines St. Kitts and Nevis’ approach to achieving CARICOM’s 25 by 2025 Agenda. The agenda essentially seeks to reduce the country’s high food import bill by 25 percent by the year 2025.
“Our food import bill currently stands at $197 million—roughly $200 million, and if we are saying that we want to reduce that by 25 percent, you recognize that that’s somewhere close to $50 million. What does this mean for our people? It means that we want to take $50 million that was flying off the tarmac and going overseas and keep that here and put it into the hands of our farming community, and I think that is a significant effort by any measure,” said the agriculture minister at Tuesday’s (August 01) National Town Hall meeting held at the Solid Waste Management Corporation (SWMC) Conference Room as part of the government’s activities to mark its one year anniversary.
Minister Duggins went on to explain how the Ministry of Agriculture intends on achieving this goal of getting farmers and fishers in St. Kitts and Nevis to significantly increase food output to meet this demand.
He said, “We are launching a number of initiatives like our greenhouse villages; we are also doing a lot of work with our fishermen and women, and we are also doing a lot of work with our agro-processors. I am happy to say that the Indian Government is coming on board to assist with our agro-processing and a number of other regional entities (CARICOM, OECS) are also coming on board in supporting our efforts.”
The implementation of the CARICOM Agri-Food Systems Strategy in the Member States is expected to help achieve the 25 by 25 target by giving special attention to priority crops and products such as poultry, corn, soya, meat (goat, sheep, beef), rice and niche vegetables which are highly imported products.
With poultry accounting for more than 80 percent of the meat consumed in the region, the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Marine Resources, Cooperatives has been making a concerted effort to increase persons interest in the layer and broiler poultry industries through the staging of a number of sensitization sessions.
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