St. Vincent and the Grenadines is on schedule to receive 40,000 sacks of urea as a gift from the Government and people of Venezuela long before Christmas Day 2022.
The cooperation and solidarity between the Governments of SVG and Venezuela continues to bring significant benefits to the people of both countries.
Dr. Hon. Ralph Gonsalves, Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines successfully negotiated support for the agriculture sector earlier this year in the form of both technical and fertilizer support from Venezuela. This has resulted in the largest single shipment of urea to SVG which is estimated to arrive in country within days.
The Ministry of Agriculture has mobilized all extension staff officials to be supported by data collectors in the adoption of a multi-ministerial approach engaging the Ministry of National Mobilization and Co-operatives to effectively manage the distribution and subsequent application of the fertilizer. This quantity of urea will provide much need support to all farmers in this period of global fertilizer inflation.
Senior technical officer in the Ministry Mr. Danowa Jackson is leading the national sensitization charge regarding the scientific application of urea to various crop and soil types and to the appropriate stages of the plant’s life cycle.
Hon. Saboto Caesar recently in an Agency for Public Information interview noted that the fertilizer will assist in bringing acres of land unused for decades into production. He further stated that support will also be provided to farmers whose crops are at a stage where the application of urea is appropriate. He underscored that this was a golden opportunity for lending institutions to join the revolution in food production by providing loans to assist with labour suppport needed to rapidly expand production. The Ministry recently distributed 40 hand tractors to farm workers and has provided free tractor service to farmers since the start of the covid 19 pandemic. This is expected to continue in 2023.