PM Drew shares glimpse of backyard garden, inspires citizens to enhance food security

St Kitts and Nevis: Prime Minister Dr Terrance Drew shared a glimpse of his backyard garden, which had several grown-up banana trees. He said that he planted the trees during the COVID lockdown, which now continue to bear fruit. The Prime Minister shared the picture in a bid to motivate people to work at their individual levels towards enhancing food security on the island. Through a Facebook post, Dr Drew said, "My banana trees planted during Covid lockdown continue to bear," along with hashtags Food Security and Back Yard Gardening. PM Drew also aimed to encourage the citizens of St Kitts and Nevis to grow more plants and keep the island green. The picture came at a time when the island nation is working hard towards achieving the 25 by 25 initiative which was launched by CARICOM and asks member states to cut food imports by 25 percent by 2025.

The Ministry of Agriculture of St Kitts has also launched the "25 by 25 Agenda" document, outlining the ambitious goals, targets, actionable strategies and supporting initiatives for 2025 and beyond.

The 30-page document outlined thoroughly the greenhouse village initiative, agriculture mechanization, storage facilities, poultry processing facility, aquaculture facility development, rehabilitation of fisheries facilities, feral animal control, implementation of drought resilience project, as well as leveraging market intelligence.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Samal Duggins identified specific crops and produce to reduce by 25% by 2025 in the document. He said that food security is the country's number one priority and they the committed to reducing the food import bill by 25% by the year 2025. The recent glimpse shared by PM Drew attracted a number of citizens and residents, who took to Facebook to appreciate him for working on his behalf to achieve CARICOM's agenda.

A user named Malcolm Smith said, "See, this is what I'm talking about, and there's a lot of people down there bawling instead of planting up their yard regardless of how small it is, a little something can go a long way ." Another user said, "Nice. A small step towards food security. We can all make a little bit of significant difference. Bless up."