Minister Duggins leads farm tour, strengthening efforts to achieve CARICOM’s 25 by 25 agenda

St. Kitts and Nevis: Minister of Agriculture Samal Duggins led a farm tour of 25 by 25 participating farms on Monday, June 24, 2024. He engaged with food producers and got a progress update about the production process.

According to the information, the participants discussed the challenges and successes which they experienced in executing the 25 by 25 agenda with the materials they received from the Department of Agriculture in St. Kitts.

The Minister’s engagement with farmers as well as backyard gardeners in the agricultural sector is to help identify those areas for enhancement and enhance collaboration between the government and the farming community to achieve the goals of the 25 by 25 agenda initiative.

This initiative launched by CARICOM aims to reduce the food imports by 2025 and St. Kitts and Nevis is working everyday to move a step ahead towards this achieving this goal.

In addition to this, Minister Duggins used the opportunity to express appreciation for the hard work and dedication of the farmers in implementing the 25 by 25 agenda and emphasized the importance of sustainable agricultural practices in achieving the goal of increased productivity in St. Kitts and Nevis.

He was joined on the tour by Acting Director of the Department of Agriculture St. Kitts, Jeanelle Kelly, Crop Program Leader, Ian Chapman, Head of the Media and Communications Division, Chaïra Flanders, Extension Officers Mark Adams and Dion Weekes, Assistant Marketing Officer, Kadeem Adams and representatives from the media.

Meanwhile, the farmers of the country have expressed their gratitude to the Ministry of Agriculture for the assistance and stated that it is of great help, the ground cover in particular that enables them to properly clear weeds from around their crops.

It is also to be noted that Agronomist at the Department of Agriculture St. Kitts, Bronte Tucker earlier this month stated that 30 thousand banana and plantain slips will soon be distributed to farmers and gardeners as part of the 25 by 25 Agenda initiative with aims to reduce imports of these plants.

This shows the government’s as well as the farmers’ commitment towards achieving this goal and reduce imports as much as possible.