 Hello St. Lucians, ladies and gentlemen, 2016 has been a heartbreaking time for many of our stakeholders in the agricultural sector. Christmas is a special time of year, one filled with many holy, joyful and festive events. It is a time to uphold the Christian values of caring and sharing. This Christmas, as we celebrate the Booth of Christ with friends, families and neighbors, I would like to make a special mention of our farmers, market and food vendors, and all those who have worked together in the past year to ensure our country's food security, despite the deleterious effect of climate change. We are aware of the negative impact of tropical storm Matthews. Therefore, I would want to make a special mention of the many farm families who have lost acreages due to natural disaster in recent times and to all those who might have had a difficulty. As minister with responsibility for agriculture, fisheries, physical planning and natural resources and cooperative, I want to on behalf of my ministry to pledge my support to restore livelihoods to a sustainable socio-economic level. As a government, we react with empathy to all those associated with the food chain and encourage you to remain resilient and to restore not only your farms, but to help improve the environment that creates these farms. All in all, I beseech you that as we reference the Christmas story and its values that all time we work not only to grow and make food available to the nation, but we do so with earnest concern to preserving our environment. We beg that you all during the season to eat more of what we grow, as this would impact positively in reducing our food import bill. I urge you during this season to continue to promote the environmental, social and economic sustainability of agriculture, as well as food security for all. Not just for the new year, but for years to follow. To my constituents, I say a special thank you. I was humbled that so many of you all choose to continue to place your trust and confidence in me. I am indeed honored to serve you, and I want to take this opportunity to thank you with all my heart. As we usher in the new year, I look forward to your continued support as we strive together to make Barbono and by extension St. Lucia a better place for all. Finally, I want to express my sincere thanks to the staff of the ministry for their warm welcome, support, commitment and hard work in transforming this sector. I would like to say Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all St. Lucia. I thank you.