Minster of Agriculture, Hon. Saboto Ceasar offered commendation to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Caribbean Agricultural Productivity improvement Activity (CAPA) for the tangible investments made in the agriculture sector in St. Vincent and the Grenadines over the last 16 months.
The Minister was high in praise to USAID CAPA for choosing St. Vincent and the Grenadines for its second field office which now directly employees three local Vincentians and the establishment of three (3) demonstration farms for respective value chains to include Dasheen in Richland Park, Vegetables in Langley Park, and Banana in Evesham.
The Hon. Minister equally thanked USAID CAPA for the assessment of the Montreal Greenhouse Facility and preparation of a commercial sustainability and operational model, the assessment of the extension services system in SVG for both private and public extension services and provision of partial scholarships for two extension officers to pursue a Continued Professional Education in climate smart extension services with the University of the West Indies. The Minister noted that building the capacity of young extension officers was not optional but is mandatory in the pursuit of achieving food security and a sector resilient to the vagaries of climate change.
Additional interventions within the sector that the Minister mentioned included the technical assistance to the Farmers Support Company towards the development of a strategic plan and provision of agri-lending tools to improve agriculture lending, demonstration farm-based trainings benefiting one hundred and sixty-seven (167) farmers, support with determining an antimicrobial treatment for dasheen and facilitation of an export trail of 40 boxes to Europe. The trial shipment was very successful. Other shipments are expected to be conducted over the next few months and co-facilitation of two youth in agriculture micro- business simulation workshop alongside the Center for Entrepreneur Development (CED) and the Embassy of the Republic of China (Taiwan) targeting fifty (50) participants.
USAID CAPA implemented by Improving Economies for Stronger Communities (IESC) is a three-year USAID funded initiative focused on enhancing food security by increasing productivity of smallholder farmers, building the capacity of buyers and input suppliers, improving farm-level extension systems, working with financial institutuons to strengthen relationships with farmers and using data on historical weather patterns to improve agronomic decisions.
