 2021 marked a turning point in agriculture fisheries, food security, and rural development in St. Lucia. The sector, having navigated through public health and socioeconomic uncertainty, did register significant changes in its overall output. However, despite the storms which challenged the industry's growth cycle, the agriculture ministry remained rooted in its commitment to bolster the agriculture economy. Through projects, activities, and partnerships that address the changing needs of its constituents, this is the Agriculture sector year-end review. We take a look back now at our major achievements for 2021. I am Amanda Fake-Lok, welcome. Agriculture stakeholders continued to make steady strides in addressing climate impacts on the sector, this time through a regional virtual conference on climate smart agriculture, the conference on climate smart agriculture, building sustainability and resilience in agriculture, sought to bring about interactive discussions on various aspects of agriculture pro-production in an era where the regional agriculture industry struggles to thrive amidst a myriad of climate-related variabilities such as prolonged drought, damaging hurricanes and tropical storms, and extensive flooding. The event, organized by the Taiwan ICDF through the Global Cooperation and Training Framework, a facility established to train development practitioners in 2015, saw submissions by the Foreign Agriculture Service of the United States Department of Agriculture, the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation and Agriculture, and the Ministry of Agriculture of the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis. It also explored topics such as utilizing weather data and innovative side-specific techniques to step up agriculture production and resilience, and systemizing climate action in Caribbean agriculture. I think to tackle the impact of climate change is a continued process and I think a long-term effort. So with all the projects or all the cooperation that we're dealing with, Ministry of Agriculture all have this component. For example, in PPIP we have the irrigation system. We introduced the Taiwanese variant of banana. So that's all part of the measures that we're dealing with, the impact, and also including the hoop greenhouse of our seven-cross project. So all of that including in the way that how we tackle this impact of climate change. In St. Lucia, the Banana Productivity Improvement Project, the PPIP, and the Seven-Crops Project are examples of interventions on the ground in which climate-smart agriculture concepts are readily incorporated. The new curve in strategizing the way forward on crop production in St. Lucia will see more roundtable events where practitioners from different sectors can come together to collectively discuss climate impact issues on the sector ahead of implementing agriculture projects and programs in the future. For agriculture leaders, initiatives must be uniquely tailored to assist farmers in sustaining their overall output. We have introduced the hoop greenhouses, we have introduced weather stations, we have introduced simple basic technology such as irrigation. And we plan to continue mitigating against climate change. As you know right now, we are in the rainy season and we have more dry season weather out there. So we understand that drought is a serious issue, that flooding is a serious issue, and that these are direct impacts of climate change, sorry, on our system. So we do continue to explore the appropriate technologies, and we continue to assist the farmers in accessing capacity buildings in terms of their training and also introducing them to new technology where they could mitigate against the climate change. The Water and Sewage Company, WASCO, completed works under the first phase of the John Compton Dam Desserting Project. This period of work saw the removal of sediments around the dam wall to clear the lower abstraction port. The overall aim was to increase the plant's water reserve capacity after 400 million gallons of water was displaced after accumulating over 1.7 million cubic meters of salt over the years, which can be attributed to the passage of hurricanes and tropical storms. I mean it was very challenging and like we just said a while ago, we have no control over the weather, and when we gave a contract to do the construction of a settlement in the Spolgoode area, we targeted to coincide with the dry season. Unfortunately that year it was not a traditional dry season, it was a rainy season, and with the contractor unfortunately lost almost one year of long time as it pertains to the impact of the rain that affected the dredging. But I must say it's something new to us in the region, and we have learned from the experience, and we're able to accomplish it because they have been talked from since Thomas 2010 as far as dredging the John Compton Dam. As mitigating the effects of climate change on the agriculture and fisheries industry remained a top agenda item for the administration of the Ministry of Agriculture, the partnership between the Department of Fisheries, the Global Environment Facility, Jeff, and the CC4Fish project saw the handover of a variety of equipment to the marine unit of the Royal Sindhuja Police Force, including water pumps, charts, navigation systems, and maintenance tools. The procurement of equipment is in keeping with the mandate of the CC4Fish project to increase resilience and reduce vulnerability to climate change impacts in the eastern Caribbean fisheries sector. The exchange deepened collaborative efforts between the Department of Fisheries and the Marine Unit as it will be of great benefit to all stakeholders involved in the fisheries sector. Having had the impact of ELSA and such other immense and unpredictable events, we know how critical it is to build resilience and the fisheries sector, like any other sector in Sindhuja, is one that is extremely vulnerable. So providing information and providing equipment to the police marine unit that aids in the efficiency of the operation and aids in the search and rescue operations especially is critical. It enhances the probability of success in these rescue operations and also it saves lives, lives of the persons at sea and also those performing the rescue operations. In an effort to combat the Coco sector's low levels of production and productivity, the ministry launched the Coco sector enhancement project which is geared towards the rehabilitation of Coco farm holdings. Some of the activities included transplanting unproductive plants and increasing acreages of Coco on the island, all in the hope of increasing Coco bean production while improving the sub-sector resilience to climate change, addressing most common diseases that impact Coco plants and low market penetration. Under the project, farmers are given the opportunity to sign a memorandum of understanding which would facilitate the collection of data including the status of Coco plants, production, sale of Coco beans as well as prices of the produce. Basically what that project stands to do is to revitalize and expand the Coco farm sub-sector. A number of initiatives has been targeted such as propagation of seedlings for farmers. Currently, we have on offer Coco seedlings for farmers at a further subsidized price of $2 before it was $4, right now we are selling these seedlings at $2 per plant for farmers just to encourage them to increase the acreage of Coco on the island. The Sinusha Marketing Board continued its efforts to stimulate, facilitate and improve the production of marketing of fresh local agricultural produce. With the assistance of the Agriculture Ministry and the Taiwan Technical Mission, 10 additional farmers were added onto the contractual arrangement launched in 2020 after the completion of a six-month trial period, where the first 20 farmers steadily supplied a variety of crops to the establishment for that cycle. The purchase agreement is strategic in its design to ensure a consistent supply of local produce throughout the year, including the seven crops targeted under the seven crops project, and is aimed at deepening the relationship between the Sinusha Marketing Board and local farmers, resulting in a more effective food marketing plan. And I believe that if we continue this trend, the hope of the Marketing Board basically is to ensure that we have as many other farmers participating in programs like that, or working with the Marketing Board, rather than having to be all over Sinusha looking for market. It's the hope that the Marketing Board, that maybe 80, 90 percent of all farmers would have this kind of arrangements with the Marketing Board, which makes it a lot easier, not only for the farmers, because you have one stop where you can bring in your produce, but also the consumers, because we would be in a position to process these crops and make it a product that is probably superior to what is available on the market. In fulfilling its vision of ensuring sustainable food supply and food safety standards for every citizen, the Agriculture Ministry convened a series of training for farmers and food handlers alike in safe food handling and good agricultural practices. The former agenda item saw the welcoming of new certified farmers into the fold after a five-week training program for agricultural regions 1, 2, and 7, which exposed farmers to updated agricultural practices that are likely to improve farming processes. The farmer training, which also focused on pesticide use and cultivation management, forced harvest technologies, record keeping and marketing, and business planning were replicated in other agricultural regions. With education and attitude, perhaps you can get to good agricultural practices, but if you want to distinguish yourself, I say you have to get to great agricultural practices. You have to put a capital GG or not. So you have to distinguish yourself and take that and learn. You have to evolve as a farmer, evolve as a businessman, evolve as a person if you want to succeed and have a premium product in this market. To distinguish yourself and to add value to what you produce. Seventeen retail and pack house staff of the Sindhuja Marketing Board graduated from a practical training exercise on post harvest handling and food safety of fresh produce for marketing. The training was one of the outputs of the Seven Crops Project. Farmers of Region 2 are better able to manage the post harvest handling process of lettuce. This as the Seven Crops Project, under the guidance of the Taiwan Technical Mission, convened a training which also introduced new lettuce varieties to farmers, namely the green and red rapid lettuce and the green and red romaine lettuce. The justification for this intervention is to ensure crop quality, minimize loss, provide better options, longer lasting and high value produce to the consumer. We find a lot of issues with when people harvest and how they treat the lettuce. Sometimes we get wilting because they do not understand that those things should not be exposed to heat. So sometimes they come in to deliver but they have over there to go and there to go and they'll do all of that. Not noticing that the nylon the lettuce is in and we try to advise them not to put it in nylons but the reality is sometimes it do happen. But by time they get there you get a lot of wilting, you get a lot of water loss. Now we know what we buy we could never sell because of that natural environment. You could never sell what you buy, especially a product like lettuce. When we buy it it's full of water. By time you know the guys take it to a storage area. You have some water loss already so if you have to go back and wait at lettuce later it will not wear the same. You know so we want farmers to understand that there are certain things that they must do when it comes to post-service, when it comes to dealing with leafy vegetables. Right? Once they fail to do that those products go to waste. Extension and advisory officers also benefited from the training series facilitated by the Seven Crops project this year. For them it was introductory sessions on the installation and maintenance of Hoop Greenhouses, one of the highly sought after agricultural technologies in recent years. We did one year of trials with the Hoop Greenhouses that's what we're talking about what we're seeing here today and we observed that it was very encouraging. The quality and the quantity of the fruit was way better under the Hoop Greenhouses throughout. So we tried it in all the regions throughout the island in several different microclimates and out of that we realized that we did have some issues like anything is a new technology to our environment. So that is what we call adoption so we adopted the technology wholesale as it was in Taiwan and after that first year of trial we realized that we have to tweak it a bit. So today we have we come in here today we are here to show the extension officers the necessary adjustment that we have seen fit. As St. Lucia continues to build its resilience against pest introductions, a core of plant health practitioners got an opportunity to augment their professional capacity through their successful completion of training on economically important plant parasitic nematodes. It was a collaborative output of the Ministry of Agriculture, the University of Florida, the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture and the Caribbean Health Director's Forum as a proactive undertaking to equip plant health officers with basic diagnostic and surveillance techniques for nematodes. Nematodes can be described as microscopic soil pests that affect plants and these inclusions frequently threatened economic development, natural resources and the environment. We are confident that this training will enhance the food security in St. Lucia as many of our major crops are susceptible to nematodes infestations. For example, the banana industry which is our main export crop has over the years battled with several species of nematodes causing topplings and reduction in yields. Fruits and vegetable production have also been affected both in open fields and productive structures. With the advent of globalization, it must be noted that trade and agriculture commodities have over the years increased our vulnerability to new pest and diseases including nematodes. Timely identification and management of such is therefore critical in not only improving crop yield but also implementing good agricultural practices to minimize or eliminate the use of synthetic pesticides. The Department of Agriculture joined the rest of the globe in commemorating World Food Safety Day 2021 where observances held under the theme Safe Food Today for a Healthy Tomorrow was aimed at keeping food safety concerns on the public agenda. In St. Lucia, agriculture and food safety leaders endeavored to provide opportunities to constituents of the agri-food sector to learn and discourse on the myriad of ways to guarantee that the food we consume is safe in the hopes of reducing the number of people who get sick from eating unsafe food. We want to take this opportunity to reach out to our agro processors and let them know that we want you to know agro processors that we now have on board a new component to ensure that the food that you are processing meets all the standards, the requirements for the markets that they are destined for. So they will now have on board of food technologies, very soon will be bringing in a food safety specialist and they are there to ensure that they can help you improve your product. Food safety is a critical component of the newly relaunched national school feeding program. Partly sponsored by the Food and Agriculture Organization, activities under the program will begin to address the knowledge gaps in food safety awareness and education among all involved in feeding our school-aged children nutritious, safe meals. Last year we conducted an assessment of all the school kitchens and gardens in St. Lucia where food safety is concerned. So we looked at the kitchens holistically, we looked at storage, we looked at the water quality, we looked at everything where food safety is concerned. Also the FAO, we're working very hard with the cooks, training them in food safety and quality. We're also including parents and students in this program because we know of course our children are very, very important where food safety is concerned because you know sometimes they could take that, they could disregard the whole food safety issue. Hurricane Alyssa served the agriculture industry another devastating blow which compounded the sector's slow recovery efforts as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic in assessing what later totaled more than $34 million in losses and damages on the various holdings in extension and advisory services such as the Fisheries Department, Livestock and crop extension divisions. Banana and plantain farmers suffered the most with reported losses of 80% or more of their farms. We're looking in the region of 2,400 acres to 2,800 acres affected and over 600 farmers affected in that sector. We also saw to a certain extent fruit trees, root crops, vegetables were also affected in the crop extension area. In terms of fisheries, we saw that there were some damage vessels by the denry area. Minimal losses though. We also saw CMOS farmers in the areas of Pwale became affected or the headline losses of CMOS. In the area of Livestock division, we saw about 70% damage to sheds, animal sheds. We saw some mortalities in terms of swine poultry in the livestock sector. So these areas have been affected. In terms of forestry, we saw some slides in the forest reserve also you would have noticed that there would have been some fallen trees and some damaged trees in that area. Recovery assistance came in quick timing from the Banana Productivity and Improvement Project, the BPIP, to help banana farmers as they continued to battle against the many other challenges impeding their productivity, namely the COVID-19 pandemic, natural disasters and severe weather conditions and extended dry spells. We continue to support the Banana Productivity Improving Project and Taiwan is committed to providing reliable assistance and incorporating new and innovation technologies to Senusia's agriculture industry. I have the privilege to accompany Minister Prosper to visit the Taiwan Technical Mission Headquarter right after Minister assumed his post and learn about his vision of future agricultural development in Senusia. I believe through our agricultural cooperation, Taiwan and Senusia will be able to join hands to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 2.3 to increase agricultural production and the income of food producers. The BPIP is known for its facilitation of activities to increase farmer productivity and efforts to revitalize the banana industry in Senusia. All these actions are strategically done to restore farmer confidence. With the severe and almost complete destruction of our banana industry, this support will go towards rehabilitation of fields, improving drainage, improving farm irrigation, farmer training and certification, pest and disease control and lessening the dependence on agrochemicals. However, beyond these traditional project activities and productivity enhancement, the government will now place strategic emphasis on the marketing of bananas. While we will continue to strengthen relationships with traditional markets along with partners like Export St. Lucia, we will also seek our new partners and markets. This strategy is to eliminate over reliance on one market and build resilience in the industry. However, the challenges experienced by banana farmers didn't end with Hurricane Elsa. The Agriculture Minister Hon. Alfred Prosper was prompted by a letter from the ripening company Fives to head a fact-finding mission to the United Kingdom to address the company's concerns about the status of bananas being shipped to the UK from St. Lucia. In addressing concerns over the future of the industry, banana farmers have been tasked with the responsibility to ensure they produce the very best quality fruit for export. Indeed, no amount of intervention from the government of St. Lucia or the Ministry of Agriculture could compensate for substandard bananas reaching our esteemed export markets. With over 600 farmers directly involved in banana farming, the banana industry continues to play a significant role in improving the livelihoods of St. Lucia. The supermarkets are saying to us that this is a business, it is not about a hobby, it's a business and they have to make a profit just like our farmers must make a profit. But we cannot continue to supply the supermarkets with poor quality bananas if our farmers have to survive in this industry. Our engagements go to the point where Fives and Sainsbury indicated to us that they are not ready to sign a new contract with us by February next year unless we indicate to them that we are serious about ensuring that we produce the right quality and not just the right quality but consistent seed quality so that our bananas can meet the requirements of the supermarket. Looking at the small share that we occupy in the market we must understand that St. Lucia's bananas if we do not raise the standard in terms of quality they will simply shut the door on us. But there is still a small window open for us Sainsbury is saying to us that we need to have an action plan on bananas we need to have a strategy on bananas and it's only when they are satisfied that St. Lucia is doing that they will begin discussions with us. Luckily for us, Waitrose who is purchasing between 2000 to 3000 boxes from us has given us some level of indication that by end of March April they would be willing to sign a contract with us. A task force will be established in early 2022 to design the strategy and requisite action plan to lead the banana sub-sector into the future reinforcing the government's position to make agriculture livelihoods more viable. It thrust towards improving the productivity and quality of banana production in order to secure foreign banana markets we'll see the Ministry of Agriculture working directly with the National Fair Trade Organization the NFTO farmers and farmers groups to address the issues plaguing the banana industry including quality claims in code due to substandard fruit shipped to the United Kingdom and then discarded. What it means for us is that our growers must be more honest I will repeat so we need a higher level of honesty the banana never forgets so that small scar the wrong clipping of the crown or any little little defect that you think may be hidden at one point it will manifest itself and it will be at the point where it will cost us a lot more. Growers must continue to engage all workers in the operation of the bananas so from the deeper to your selector to your packer everybody must be involved everybody who touches that fruit must understand the technicalities of producing that fruit and getting it to the market in one piece. As the new Minister for Agriculture fisheries full security and rural development Honorable Alfred Prosper spent no effort in getting acquainted with the Ministry's ongoing work program its numerous projects being undertaken agency administration and project leaders and the growing list of agriculture constituents whom the Ministry serves through a series of familiarization tours to key agricultural organizations and stations one of these tours took him to communities in Souffre where his discussions with farmers and agro processors led him to better understand the current developments in the agriculture sector in that region. When you have people producing products of this nature they need urgent support just like our farmers that we visited in Derash you have a high number of farmers those who are producing potato, tashin and other root crops they are also making an invaluable contribution to food security in St Lucia but they are challenged by what I heard today the road has been a serious problem many years ago I know in the past some attention has been given to the road but from what I gathered this morning the road has become and has been a major issue for those farmers in the derash area now I know the government is stretching in terms of financial resources now but we have to also understand the critical rule that those farmers play in terms of food production we have to find some way of relieving them of the situation and to ensure that we continue to encourage them to produce the agriculture ministry and the taiwan technical mission through the seven crops project partnered with marsy stores to launch the love st lucia premium corner the premium corner is available at marsy store supermarkets across st lucia and will primarily promote the purchase of selected locally produced fruits and vegetables of the seven crops project which includes cantaloupes lettuce tomatoes pineapples watermelons cabbages and bell peppers this public private partnership will be of great benefit to local farmers and consumers alike we remain fully committed to working with the agricultural sector our suppliers our farmers so that our customers would get the best quality produce produce locally our expectations for this love st lucia campaign is for our local items to be our customers first choice we don't want it to be the only choice but we want it to be the first choice world for day celebrations this year saw the ministry partnering with the feed the poor ministry to feed 100 less fortunate people in castries the initiative sought to promote national awareness and bring about tangible action for citizens who suffer hunger and to reinforce the government's commitment to work on ensuring that every citizen has access to nutritious affordable food this is not a case in st lucia alone it is a global problem and this problem is one that i think we need to address as soon as possible because food security is one of the sustainable development goals that countries like st lucia sign on to we must make efforts to ensure that every single person who exists in this country has an opportunity to be able to get at least one meal a day in recognizing the need to adequately address the holistic development of the local api culture industry the veterinary and livestock services division spearheaded a national workshop on api culture which had the overall objective of developing an integrated api culture industry which builds awareness and protection of natural ecosystems while benefiting all api culture stakeholders and the participating communities the training exercise was a collaborative undertaking with the global environment facility jeff the ionola api culture collective export st lucia and the inter-american institute for cooperation and agriculture where attention was drawn towards identifying new api culture techniques that ensure the api culture industry's optimization and sustainability as well as promoting the production of beehive products that meet international standards that our farmers in the rural parts of our caribbean and st lucia have always gotten a small bite of the pie with the majority of the value added going to the metro poles and the mother country and so on i want to make an appeal to st lucia in api culture this must not happen the value added along that value chain must remain in st lucia and our people must become the the supporters the developers of api culture in st lucia jeff is determined to do that and to invest in the capacity development of the people and government of st lucia so he's let's remember the history in cotton is the same thing that happened sugar bananas and even tourism now our economists tell us the multiplier effect is very low so let us remember that we are developing industry that must become managed and developed by our people the value of honey and other hive products in st lucia is estimated to be about two million ec dollars yearly despite the fact that the local demand for honey and beehive goods is not met the department of agriculture continues to urge api cultureists to capitalize on all value added opportunities afforded to them within the api culture sub-sector in the same spirit of ecosystem protection and conservation the ministry of agriculture signed on to a memorandum of understanding with the ministry of sustainable development for a five-year jeff southeast coast project which will focus on ecosystem management landscape restoration and sustainable livelihoods on the southeast coast of st lucia the forestry division will concentrate efforts on establishing at least one marine protected area as well as restoration and rehabilitation of mangroves seagrass beds and coral reefs further support will also be given to farmers so that they can engage in value added services such as agro processing so within the department of agriculture we have three critical departments that have to work collaboratively with the department of sustainable development and other stakeholders including the local community leaders and community groups to execute and implement the project activities so we are at the department of agriculture committed to making this project a success and with the signing of its mou we used to formalize our commitment and we look forward to working with unit jeff the project coordination team to make better the lives of every st lucia the forestry division joined the disney conservation fund in recognizing melvin smith one of 20 recipients of the disney conservation award joining an esteemed caucus of passionate disney conservation heroes who are citizens of over 50 countries worldwide mr smith identified 400 new wild plant species on the island that had previously gone undocumented he also contributed to the restoration of the sandy beach coastline by growing 800 individual plants in his own nursery to help revegetate the coastline the disney conservation fund recognizes the dedication and hard work of individuals and groups working to conserve wildlife and protect wild places around the world in a flood in his work country manager and forest management advisor for the caribbean america's fauna and flora international adams to say explained that upon discovering a small mountain top population of pencil cedar trees and endemic species nearly extinct in the wild melvin cultivated new saplings through patience and the fierce determination to bring this species back from the brink of extinction this species was recently discovered on the edge of a cliff at petipito so what mr smith has significantly done is to actually take some of these germ plasm and bring down and now he's able to grow over 1500 plants in a nursery in its original habitat there's just about 60 plants left so that was the world um i would say repository on that petipito itself so now we are able to now grow these plants and now be able to restore the species in the wild and now solutions can be able to use this plant as a christmas tree and this is why we have called it the petro christmas tree because it is in the past was used as christmas trees the department of forestry joined hands with the cibc first caribbean bank to commemorate world day to combat desertification and drought 2021 this observance focused on turning degraded land into healthy land in an effort to restore ecosystem services and integrate the ecosystem management approach the two partners held a tree planting event in moncitor babono assessments carried out by the department of forestry provided evidence of overutilization of resources for livelihoods in that area which had the potential to result in the loss of the resource space the forest reserve was intentionally cleared for the production of charcoal and planting of agricultural crops the activity saw the replanting of approximately 300 trees we wanted to have something that would be uh significant and long lasting and something that would contribute to keeping a greener space and um it it sort of fitted well with the fact that we have branches throughout the the region in all 16 territories and as you know the branch a branch is also a part of a tree and we thought that um you know that would be a good thing to do so we decided that let's do some tree planting and so we've done that in all our territories and um you know today here in st blusher and quite frankly i think we're probably going to be the best because i think we have you know a very special partnership in that today sort of fits in with what is happening as a country and then overall with what we're doing as a as a bank the activity here today would bring you know all those stakeholders all our partners to actually come and plant the tree so they would actually take the tree and place it in the soil you know it's not like we planting and they just come in and watch no they actually come into plant and and that is also significant because you know that kind of activity can be replicated could be done you know in other places they can come back in the next three to six months you know and see the progress you know of what their own their own work you know their own labor they could come back and and see um and in that way you know when you know people are engaged you know in that way and doing the practical work themselves i mean sometimes there's a greater value you know that they please own the resources it the launch of the one village one product campaign signal the start of joint efforts of the ministries of agriculture and commerce to maximize the output of small and micro producers by developing products and branding that meet the standards of local regional and international markets the one village one product concept is a comprehensive japanese approach to building the capacity of rural communities while identifying a product that originates within the community represents its culture and has the potential to generate economic activities for the community in sin lucha the project seeks to fill the gaps that exist in ensuring the successful marketing of local products the project's pilot phase is currently on the way in three communities namely prale schruzzel and sofrae what you find happening is that through agriculture a lot of small and micro producers are able to sustain a livelihood the challenge they have however is in the product development and sometimes in the product branding through the over what they are able to do is that since uvup is a global community that brand becomes recognizable and persons recognize that there's a quality associated with over is that we have looked at prale and we recognize that seamos seems to be one of the lifeblood projects and products out of prale there are other products where we are testing seamos um in in schruzzel we are testing the handicraft and in so far we are testing coco as part of its ongoing efforts to better manage sin lucha's marine resources the department of fisheries collaborated with sector agencies to conduct a two-day mapping exercise of the canneries and slurry and so far marine management areas a critical component in ensuring the effective and efficient management of fisheries the undertaking ensured that fisheries stakeholders and agencies in the area are better positioned to avoid and or resolve conflict between marine resource users while also protecting marine life the department recognizes that over the years since its gazetting into the year 2000 what has happened is that there was a lot of institutional memory lost of course in terms of the zones there are yacht marine areas there are recreational areas there are marine reserves and their fishing priority areas and all of these areas have particular types of rules and regulations governing what can happen in those areas now very critical to that is people need to know where those boundaries are and what has happened is that we have relied more or less on institutional memory landmarks to be able to indicate that but as we move towards enforcing those areas better and to have a long history or catalog of it it's critical that we what we call delimit these areas properly with geo reference points another initiative was also launched in support of the fisheries department's marine and fisheries management efforts and to educate stakeholders on how best to balance their daily use for livelihood activities and marine conservation the coast fish project is a regional project focusing on six caricum countries of which sinusha is a pilot country the sinusha component will focus on the strengthening of the coastal and marine management areas as well as the possibility of introducing a new marine management area the pilot areas for the project in sinusha are sulfur and labry for the sulfur site the department of fisheries embarked on a consultation with several stakeholders to bring about discourse on the day-to-day reality and to devise a plan of action for improved collaborative use of the marine resources every sector has their own um you know priorities but a couple of the complaints that we have received um maybe some tension between um the use of certain areas whether they might be marine reserve or fishing priority areas between maybe fishes and divers or some um you know marine vessels may be going too quickly through different areas where other people might be present you know so it's just basically managing any outcome any any concerns that could be that could arise the coast fish project is a spin-off of the steward fish project which realized some milestones in sinusha in improving fisheries and marine stakeholder use of the island's marine resources meanwhile the oasis secretariat in collaboration with the united nations conference on trade and development and the convention on international trade in endangered species of wild fawn and flora cites hosted a stakeholder consultation and validation exercise for the blue biotrade project the biotrade project focused on empowering small-scale coastal producers from the oasis member states to capitalize on the briskly increasing global demand for marine-based bio resources like the queen kong and high value algae such as seamos so right now what has been done they've done a study to look at what the potential for trade and investment export markets etc what it's what the findings of that study is being displayed today and we are getting inputs from various fisher folk and other stakeholders into that study that's very important because as it starts with a study it helps us understand where can we go with the industry what is what are the potentials for the industry for increasing opportunities for livelihoods in the sector the ministry of agriculture continued to take the safety of prairie alasney officers seriously by making the investment in procuring safety equipment to be used while on the field the protection equipment included snake gators to maximize the level of protection against snakes and other hazards likely to be encountered in the wild the unit also received expandable battles to be used as a compliance tool and defense weapons by the officers i'm happy that we have that because every day we go out there we encounter problems with snakes right we're just lucky that nobody has gotten bitten from a snake yet so i want to thank you sir again and the minister involved at large though because he's part of the the ministry for this equipment that we are going to receive this morning and speaking of protection the veterinary and livestock services division will follow through with the guidelines outlined in the animal act as part of its arsenal for controlling stray animals along the island's main roads one final appeal was issued to cattle owners in late november ahead of instituting the impounding of animals under the 2005 animal act the additional emphasis on securing stray animals comes after months of sensitization and deliberation with farmers on the long-standing issue of unsecured animals posing hazards to pedestrians and vehicular traffic on the road network we understand the the needs of our cattle farmers we understand the challenges that they face especially those who are not land owners and we understand these challenges we understand the need also for food security and food sovereignty and so we have been we have been working with them speaking with them discussing strategies and solutions to eliminate to alleviate the wandering cattle and stray cattle on our highways which also pose a high risk and a pose a hazard to motorists pose a hazard to pedestrians there also a hazard to and property owners as well cattle owners must take responsibility for their livestock there has to be responsible ownership especially in the absence of land ownership and barriers in terms of fencing and so on corrals there has to be responsible ownership we must take ownership of our animals and have them restrained have them tethered to protect our public and also to protect the animals so the ministry of agriculture is imploring the farmers one last time making that last appeal and serving that final notice and in the absence of cooperation we will we will look at the laws available to us legislation available which indicates that it is an offense to have these animals wandering on the highway posing a hazard to motorists and to the public and these animals will be impounded World Water Day 2021 was again set aside for increased awareness and sensitization of the importance of water resources to everyday life this year the water resource management agency the WRMA worked in partnership with the department of forestry to roll out its itinerary of activities get towards highlighting tangible ways a citizen can support the ongoing interventions by the agriculture ministry to improve the accessibility of water and to encourage proper management and use of water resources it's uh it's very fitting very timely for us in this region because right now we're actually in the middle of the dry season so it's an opportunity to let persons know at this time of year you know when we have the drought like conditions you know the dryness that the water resources may be affected in terms of the availability you know to consumers so I think it's a time where persons need to take that into consideration and we move into some kind of conservation measures the theme for world water day 2021 was valuing water according to the united nations the value of water is about much more than its price the day's celebration was in line with sustainable development goal number six which is aimed at achieving water and sanitation for all by 2030 in an effort to combat weather and climate shocks such as droughts and floods the wrma and the sinducia meteorological services have engaged hydro meteorological engineering companies to update the existing stations in sinducia with the aim of increasing the capacity of data analysis with the upgrading of the stations the wrma can improve the island's technical capacities allowing it to better calibrate and integrate flood warning systems improve numerical weather prediction use and forecasts and have an overall quality management system the benefit of doing the optimization of of the network where we're doing the upgrade changing components that don't work stations that don't work is one we're looking to standardize the network so that we have similar equipment from the the similar manufacturers around the island and two is to reduce our data gaps because every time a station stops working that means we're not collecting data and it is very important that we have continuous data in order to do the analysis that is needed now we've under this optimization regime what we're looking to do is to get the information as much information as we can in real time and that information now will be fed into early warning systems that we have up and running on island the wrma successfully installed three automatic flood warning stations at strategic points in union castries and malgritude it was completed as part of an initiative under the pilot program for climate resilience and in partnership with the university of the west indies and the caribbean institute for meteorology and hydrology to reduce property damage and the disruption of commerce and human activities in the event of an emergency the real-time data received from the stations will be relayed to the national emergency management organization to enable a faster more efficient and predictable response there are certain areas in solution low-lying areas which flood easily as a result of high intensity rainfall flash floods are experienced and some of the our our structures for instance bridges are also vulnerable so this station will allow us to actually assess the relationship between rainfall and flows and river flows so that we could actually make these assessments for engineering designs and would also feed into early warning systems in collaboration with with NIMO so basically when the flows the various thresholds are reached the information will be communicated to NIMO and the determination will be made based on ground truthing truthing on the ground and coordination with various local partners because we need also to validate the the flow levels to determine whether flooding is imminent or not so this whole mechanism is coordinated by by NIMO so it's a combination of getting that real-time data and ground truthing with the various community partners the ministries of agriculture and sustainable development formed an alliance to launch the building resilience for adaptation to climate change and climate variability in agriculture in sinducia project which is funded by the adaptation fund and implemented by the caribbean development bank the building resilience for adaptation to climate change and climate variability in agriculture in sinducia project aims to improve the resilience of rural farm communities by increasing farm productivity water and livelihood security and reducing vulnerability to natural hazards climate variability and climate change the project's targets include interventions for water security soil conservation and management the integration of renewable energy practices to increase efficiency and knowledge management and transfer to improve adaptive capacities honorable alfred prospects explained that in the face of more frequent and severe agricultural losses such as the recent impact of hurricane elsa and farmers having little to no insurance coverage developing a resilient agriculture sector is critical noticeably the project seeks to build on existing efforts soil and slope stabilization being done by the forest department under the john compton dam project and the i w eco project in areas of millet and fauncezak respectively also targeted our water conservation measures to complement some of the work that are currently ongoing with respect to rainwater harvesting initiatives increasing water storage capacity and enhancement of irrigation systems under the seven crops project and then and the banana productivity improvement project i wish to express on behalf of the government of sinducia sincere appreciation to the adaptation fund especially to the board and all those involved in the approval process who ensured that sinducia was able to secure his grant collaboration to ensure the integration of efforts to achieve the common goal of enhancing school gardens and especially the school feeding program in sinducia was solidified through the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the ministries of agriculture education and health with the overarching aim of reducing hunger and improving food security in line with the united nation sustainable development goals for poverty and malnutrition the program is supported by the caricum fao mexico initiative on cooperation for climate change adaptation and resilience in the caribbean the framework of this initiative supports participating countries in the efforts to protect livelihoods ensure adequate access to healthy foods and ensure sustainable management of natural resources the sustainable school feeding program initiative is based on activities such as the involvement of the educational committee the adaptation of adequate and healthy school meals implementation of educational school gardens improvement of school kitchens and storage areas direct purchases of product from local farmers and school gardens improvement of the national school feeding policy in sinducia an assessment of the health assessment of students our understanding is that school feeding in sinducia as elsewhere have long been established and recognized as an important instrument in facilitating learning especially for poor and vulnerable children healthy and well-nourished children learn better representative from the mexican embassy based in sinducia carlos iván guanzales osuna underlines the mexican government's commitment to aid in sinducia in this endeavor and deepening diplomatic ties it is for me an honor and a satisfaction to participate in this ceremony that marks the launch of the part of the implementation of the project on resilient school feeding implementation program which is part of the mexico caricum fao initiative cooperation for climate change adaptation and resilience in the caribbean recently reoriented in order to mitigate the economic and social impacts generated by the covid-19 disease and which has a budget of more than five and a half million us dollars the entire the entire initiative which benefit 14 countries in the region including the sixth eastern caribbean states perhaps the most notable of improvements was the rebranding of the ministry's social and digital presence with the redesign of the ministry's local a revamped official ministry website was launched with the objective of making pertinent sector specific information data statistics applications technical and administrative support and audio visual productions more accessible to agriculture stakeholders the new website has served well in having clients access a myriad of services without having to visit the agriculture offices we saw with the old website the colors and the depiction they were not in line with the colors internationally known to be attributed to agriculture so we came back with the colors you would see green and yellow featured which are the prominent agriculture colors internationally so our website was more in line with what is known internationally and the global standard and also the content on the website it features more heavily centered around the various departments the service and product offering and the the content needed for persons who are engaging agriculture content such as the technology parks which would feature on the website other information that you would need to help you through things like concessions videos on our shows agriculture and the move you would find that and of course linking that to our social media platform these things were nonexistent in the previous version of the website so we've updated it to make it more attractive and interactive additionally the iFam application was launched to solve the long-standing challenge of capturing accurate and timely data on current crops and potential yields the reporting of market data and the production of reports on farmer produce in any geographic location island-wide the adoption of digital technologies in precision agriculture has been adjusting the ways that farmers grow their crops and manage fields i'm privileged to witness this new chapter of agricultural collaboration between taiwan and solution by introducing this new integrated agriculture information system iFam it is a sustainable convenient and transparent communication tool which connects the demand and the supply ends such able to expand market access and income of local farmers i believe that this technology leap will bring significant benefits to solutions through different aspects even adapting to impacts of climate change and advancing food security the past several weeks have been taken up with fine-tuning points of action on the work program of the agriculture ministry over the next quarter into 2022 this comes as the leaders of various departments and programs of the ministry of agriculture combine their efforts and resources in the hopes of closing gaps in the agriculture sector with the facilitation of the two latest interventions on export where the corporate planning unit of the ministry of agriculture and exports in musha interfaced with key agriculture exporters on the island and on climate change the ministry has signaled the new direction of its new work program that of increased stakeholder participation in the decision-making process on agriculture production market access and export chief agri enterprise development officer thaddeus constantine sales the time is rife to ensure that all decisions are actions taken to grow the agriculture economy be also supported by the experience and traditional knowledge of the constituents the ministry serves as he explains the ministry is on a mission to find the mechanisms to strengthen the strategy for the export of agricultural produce so that the sector can be an even greater contributor to the country's GDP it's a start of a collaborative effort between ministries so normally uh ministry of agriculture would engage the exporter exporters alone export senator would do it alone commerce would do it alone so um out of a series of meetings earlier this year we decided that we need to work as a team and stop um duplicate in our efforts combine our efforts so that every um partner knows where the industry is at and the contribution that needs to be made by that partner so um we're hoping that like you said this is going to be a breath of new life into the industry where we're going to now be able to work in a collaborative way instead of in silos we're now working a collaborative way where we have exports and leisure ministry of agriculture ministry of commerce becoming one team and that one team now supports the exporters to provide them with the information they need and also to correct the the problems in the market in a timely fashion mr constantine says while export data record keeping and dependable crop supply is essential to keep export of local agricultural crops stable aligning the agriculture ministry's efforts to that of its partner ministries is power month and moving the sector forward because sometimes the the problems we have the solutions but we are not doing things in a timely coordinated fashion so ministry of agriculture would put policy in place for sps however it is not communicated efficiently to export some leisure and so export some leisure would still be working on the old protocols and the exporters would be working on the old protocols however new protocols have been put in place to make them more efficient so we're hoping that with this new synergy this new way of working interministerial making the entire government services work as one body would do marvels for our exporters and we're hoping to use this model across the industry increasing the export of key crops and other agricultural produce requires an adjustment in how the key players work together a commitment the agriculture ministry has reaffirmed in recent times throughout the world agriculture remains under pressure to evolve into a more sustainable economic activity the many initiatives undertaken over the last year although successful only demonstrates how much more work needs to be done to sustain the viability of agriculture food and fisheries livelihoods while simultaneously creating a conducive environment in which all facets of the industry can thrive it will take determination and persistence in the face of challenges innovative minds that can perceive what value emerging niche after food sub sectors can present to the current national agriculture strategy embracing the change in times and uniting with the pioneers among us to grow an agriculture sector that we can all as solutions be proud of from the production of high value local products creator market options access to agricultural financing adopting modern agricultural technologies and providing incentives for all especially the youth to start agri-food enterprises the ministry of agriculture fisheries food security and rural development believes the journey onward in 2022 will be filled with opportunities for regeneration and expansion this has been the agriculture ministry's year-end review i am amanda fey clock thank you so much for watching