 Agriculture on the move. Agriculture on the move. Agriculture on the move. Agriculture on the move. Agriculture on the move. Good day again, Saint Lucia, and welcome to the program Agriculture on the Move. Agriculture on the Move. Yes, we are on the move in Saint Lucia as far as agriculture is concerned and that is why today our topic is a very interesting one but more importantly it's a program that we must discuss at this juncture in Saint Lucia. Our food prices are rising our food import bills are soaring. So today with me are three gentlemen to have that important discussion and to my immediate right is Mr. Vincent Lacobinier who is the general manager of the Saint Lucia Marketing Board, Mr. Richard Edwin who is the president of the cooperative choice group CCG and of course Mr. Dean Averell who is the climate smart agricultural officer, Woosk Caribbean. Gentlemen, welcome to the program. There are a lot of people who probably don't know what is Woosk Caribbean and some people don't know what is cooperative choice group. So I think before we get there anyway let us get straight out so people understand who is who. Your cooperative, briefly. Okay, cooperative choice group is a cooperative of course. It was registered in 2018. We are strictly a farming organization farmers organization and we are interested or we are trying to promote farmers in Saint Lucia. Okay, that's good. Mr. Edwin tell us about Woosk Caribbean. So Woosk Caribbean is a Canadian NGO funded through Global Affairs Canada. We're implementing a five-year project called the Sustainable Agriculture and the Caribbean project. So I serve as a climate smart officer and we have two other officers in Saint Lucia. Miss Eugene who is the agribusiness and marketing officer and Mr. Aaron Brown who is assisting with gender and inclusion affairs. Great, okay, good. Nice balanceable marketing board is self-explanatory. Okay, I just want to get a clear idea of your own perception of food and nutrition security. I'll start with you, Mr. April. Okay, so basically we talk about the availability of food, affordability of food and access. Most importantly, so when we talk about a nation being food secure at any point in time all its citizens should be able to access good quality nutritious food at prices that are affordable and I mean by that definition alone you can tell that we are in some problems. Okay Miss Edwin, what's your take? Food security is an urgency in Saint Lucia right now. Not only in Saint Lucia but we are specifically focusing on Saint Lucia. And it has as you said in your opening, it has to be dealt with. We must discuss it and we from the G we feel that we are literally pussyfooting on it. We are not serious we are not aggressive enough in addressing that issue. That's why we're discussing it today. Right and we have to discuss it in a very aggressive way. And we also have to be serious about it. And we are not seeing the seriousness about you know in terms of you know the crisis that we are faced with right now. So Miss Edwin, I'm from a marketing standpoint. When is marketing both fixed in that whole equation? Well marketing really is making the produce for the crops. The food available to the consumer. That's basically what it is. Now if we don't have the food available to the consumer. The question is like where does the food come from? It comes from foreign it's imported. But our local producers don't have access as we would like them to have as far as production is concerned. So the the conversation should not just be for marketing. It should be for marketing and production. Because we need to understand for example the consumer consumes what the consumer consumes when the consumer consumes and in what form what form where does that consumer produce the food. Now this is where all this conversation must lead to. The quantity. That is what the problem is. Now how do you get all information? This moment must come from somewhere. It must come from data. It must come from who have who, who knows what when to produce, how to produce how much to produce. And that is something that should be established to facilitate the marketing of the produce. Because if you don't know what the consumer wants, you can produce for them. If you don't know what quantity they want, you don't know anything about it. You don't know any information about the consumer. How can they produce for them? And that is what the problem is. We do not know the regular basis consistently what the consumer needs when the consumer needs it in what volume the consumer needs it. So you find every so often you know what we have without cabbage, without tomato without carrots. It's fluctuating. So I mean, and we have the capacity the market has the capacity for storage but where the information must come from somewhere. So we need a system to collect data on the field and to transform it into what I call the consumer demand satisfying it. But also we need the producers to have the information so at what? So they can go and produce that. So that's where the marketing board comes in. And that's where marketing comes in. So marketing is really the tool to facilitate full security. Definitely. So I was told that there is a full security policy in the ministry which was established about seven years ago. I think it was a ten-year policy. There are three more years to go. In fact, I had a meeting, short discussion of my peers. And I think more so than now now, I think it has to be brought to the table. And I think there is a committee now looking at it from the ministry standpoint. But I'm putting it out there to ask the question, what do you think the ministry has done or have done or is not doing as far as full security is concerned? Well, if I can take a stab at it and it is very important that you mention that this policy is now being revisited and the action plan is being revisited because one of the things that we've been having this discussion ever since CCG had their consultation in June was, okay, we had an action plan. How do we go back to that action plan? What have we achieved from that action plan? We have policies, we have a lot of recommendations in that plan. Talking about revising legislation, what we do to tackle previous, what we do to tackle losses, how do we balance like my colleague said, balance production with storage, with market supply. How do we do all of these things? So if we had a plan there's nothing wrong now, we had a good junction now, 10 years later revisit the plan. What have we achieved? What have we not achieved? What is stopping us from getting to the targets that we need to meet? That is what we need to do. You see, that's why the conversation is so important. And we have to ask the question, where do we start? If we are talking about food security, who produces the food? We have to start with the farmer. And this is where I think that the greatest challenge is if it's not a problem. We have to start the discussion even in formulating the plan. When we have a plan and the plan is somewhere and nobody knows about this, how do you implement it? How does it come on stream? It's impossible to come on stream. I think what we are forgetting is that we are pushing the farmer aside or leaving them aside and not including them in the whole discussion. In the formulation of this discussion the policy formation. I'm wondering whether the farmers were involved or farmer groups were involved in actually creating that situation. Because the farmer is key. In other words, I'm seeing here when it comes to the annual work of extension, you cannot formulate an action plan without the farmers being involved. And that's where we are today. Coming from your consultation, what came out of that? What the farmers are asking? What they are saying to assist moving forward? We have a critical problem here. A problem for our organization. We have to find a vehicle through which we can bring the farmers together. And at this point the only thing we have is the cooperative organizations and look at the state of cooperative organizations in this country. They are not involved in anything. The farmers are fragmented. There is no attempt in actually bringing the farmers together. Who is supposed to do that? Everybody. Everyone is supposed to be doing that. But most importantly is the department of cooperative. They have to do that. We have been trying. I mean the CCG has been trying for a number of years now about three or four years now. Trying to bring farmers together so that we can better represent the farmers and use the cooperative as a vehicle to actually generate interest in producing. And in seeing what it is is needed in addressing the whole problem of insecurity. But the support is not there. The support is not there. And we feel at CCG that we are even being ostracized. Because we are too aggressive. We talk too much or something like that. You know. But we are not giving up. I mean we we say that we don't care. But we are unafraid, I should say. So who are you all targeting? What organizations are you all targeting? Where do you think that that writing should start? Is it from the ministry standpoint or from the cooperative department standpoint? Because there's a lack of education as far as cooperative concern. We have to be able to determine what is the role of the cooperative in the economy of this country. Where do we stand? As a sector of what value it is to the national economy. If we are not able to determine that then we treat cooperatives as an afterthought. As if they are not important and so they have no place in the economy. So the farmers must be isolated and they are fragmented and they don't know what to do. Farmers know how to plant. They have to know how to produce. But at the same time, if we are addressing a problem and we need collective action we have to as a unit. That's not true. While he is talking it brings back the conversion from a historical perspective. When we wanted to expand the development of any crop in the old world where the Americans had to use the founding fathers. The founding fathers were instructive enough to have created the cocoa boil the agricultural association the race association to know what to facilitate the production of the crop and the marketing of the crop. But you see we have to look at what are the structures that we put in place to do anything in this country. And that is where he is talking about the cooperative. The cooperative movement is a structure that should be put in place as a methodology of work. Because you must have a structure to facilitate the production. Now if we have to look at banana production banana production there was the company the company had the transport sector it had the financial sector it had the export sector technical work Now tell me what other commodity have the privilege I use the word privilege also the structure and that is what we are talking about when we are talking about cooperatives and even the marketing board every country at some point had a marketing board to facilitate production to facilitate the movement of the produce from the farmer to the market. Now look at the state today the marketing board look at the state of it if you are struggling you have no technical support from anybody in terms of an organized way marketing board have no nano they don't have even a copy of the plan you are talking about what is the plan in terms of one way the marketing board knows the target marketing board knows the crop and marketing board knows the farmer that we are full secure can healing feed itself that is where we are coming from with a discourse national dialogue we are not coming to step on anybody but we think and it is very important not that you mentioned there is a committee I think the committee needs now to examine what has to be inspired or it is not productive but even if it is not productive how can it be more productive because our food import will continue to tell us something is not right something is not going right something is not efficient something is not consistently efficient and that is where we need to begin so the convention where we talk in the talk it is not anything why we have to be afraid of anybody to me to my mind I look at the food on my table and I also look at the future of my children and to me there should be no compromising on this thing there should be no sugar coating on this thing we need to seriously and critically go down to the belly of the beast and examine the the national food policy or the national gene policy and dissect it and see where we are at what have we done wrong what have we done right let us multiply and move forward at this juncture we will do for our break you are watching agriculture on the move stay tuned we will be back soon don't go away the Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries Food Security and Rural Development is placing heavy emphasis on the concept of food security it's our prosperity our future the farmer incentives program of the Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries Food Security and Rural Development is aimed at reducing the cost of production and promoting food security and accessibility all farmers fishers and agro processors who've registered and own a farmers registration card qualify these incentives include the percentage reduction of excise tax and import duties for agricultural and fisheries production inputs which are imported and include approved agricultural products for an approved agricultural project for example vehicles fishing vessels animals animal feed planting materials and other farm inputs farmers can apply by completing the application form and submitting with all relevant documents attached for further information contact the deputy director of agricultural services at 468-4125 food import bill is soaring and our inputs are also soaring so we need to add that conversation I'm happy that you Mr. Edwin you all had a consultation but what I want to find out is that you had a consultation is it dead after that I mean what came out of it okay what came out of it was it documented and to who sent to for discussion for the discussion maybe to look at the policy again and to see how we can implement something positive moving yes it was documented we have transcript we have video and it was live stream as well the video has been edited and completed so we are now ready to share the information the next step we wanted to do with the transcript and the video as well was to print it get it printed we have not done that yet we are looking for funding to do that but what actually came out of this is that we wanted the conversation the outcome is conversation to continue we wanted a kind of structural relationship with the participants the people who came in to continue the discussion and we are looking at how do we cultivate the new generation of farmers we are looking at that and we are actually in fact yesterday we had a discussion about how to bring in the younger people or new farmers on stream the other thing we are looking at is to how we get the powers that be to take this thing seriously because we are not going anywhere we are sitting right here when is the powers that be government officials and so on how long ago you had that consultation in June it was in June so it's just a matter of a few months in September what have come out of this have you had discussion of the powers that be as a matter of fact we were at a meeting a national cooperative meeting just recently I said the minister and we had a short discussion and he said he's ready to talk and interestingly the cooperative department was there and also the minister of cooperatives she was also there and they have agreed to put something on the table to assist the development of cooperative you know interactive with the farmers and the cooperatives so that's a good sign okay Mr. Ethrel climate change is there you involve looking as the climate smart agricultural officer what is WOSC doing to help the farmers move forward to mitigate climate change so in order for us to arrive at a meaningful solution to a lot of the problems that we face and climate change is only one of them and when we have the discussion about climate change I also like to talk about the economic climate and other factors other than just the physical environment because a lot of things are happening while we sleep the physical climate is changing currency devaluations inflation all of these things are part of the climate it's part of the environment that the farmers and everybody else has to operate within so in order for us to tackle issues correctly we take on what we call inclusive market systems type approach so what that does now especially from the standpoint of food security help us to identify what exactly is the pathway that the country is on towards food security who are the actors that have a part to play because we can't leave it on the back of the farmers alone okay are the roles being fulfilled all of the different actors that have a part to play are the roles being fulfilled what services is there does the legislation actually support the food security policy are they working in tandem so a lot of our analysis comes from being able to identify what are some of the root causes of the problems that we face from the climate standpoint how do we continue to build more climate resilient agriculture systems how do we make our farmers more climate smart and in essence try to build on systems that can continue to work for us even though the climate may change it would not be a problem even though there is a war tomorrow and there are supply chains disruption it will not be a problem something else like COVID comes it will not be a problem these are the systems that we have to build for ourselves so that is the path that we are on throughout the life of this project in particular and it's more about not being able to help one and two people by tank and no not like that help them to build resilience of the systems so the systems can withstand the test of time it can withstand changing climate it can withstand the rising cost of inputs and other things like that so far so good and we are getting a lot of cooperation I mean of course it's no easy fate but you see a lot of cooperation from persons who understand that hey we cannot continue with business as usual and that is what we ought to change we really need a different approach I know you are going into a consultative sort of situation marketing board bring in stakeholders, tell us about this okay well coming from the I would like to call the CID that CCG so a marketing board looking to nurture it a little more and we believe that the conversion must continue so we are looking at there is a collaboration between the marketing board and Taiwan's mission for us to continue the conversation so on Friday the 30th of September what we are going to have is a full security consultation we are looking to approach it from a production pre-production post-production kind of strategy because at every stage you have issues what are the issues of pre-production and I mean I didn't mention climate smart solar rivers are drying up isn't that the pre-production you know no we have problems with labour is that the pre-production what are some of the issues the soil, the inputs and all these things post-production of course we are marketing marketing board comes in do we have storage, do we have delivery for example it is easier for you to get a cabbage a carrot from South America, South America to be consumed at Bhutan or to be consumed at La Clare why? so this tells you that we have a lot of work to do we have a lot of discussions to get involved and a lot of conversation so on Friday we are going to trying to bring all the stakeholders like who are the stakeholders the farmers cooperative trying to bring a lot of advocacy to the rural women network some of the ministries we are looking at finance insurance we are looking at all the various players in the process that will impact on food security in the country because we must have the conversation so that's a Friday, Saturday we are going to have a farmers market and on Sunday we are going to have a family food fair so I mean for you you have seen some of the progress in terms of the agri-business people the farmers that have been there produced and then the calamities within the family you know seeing some of that stuff you are not able to see some other food and you know I mean that cannot be that's what the intention is but I say we are putting a lot of emphasis on the dialogue for food security in the country yes and I think the ministry is well that's the mantra in the ministry now food and nutrition security and I think he cannot do it alone the ministry cannot do it alone and of course that's where you all come in marketing board, you know, you come in and you come in to ensure that we need to speak or to sing from the same name him now we have to do it final words from yourself we come to the end well I want us to take the food security in a context that it is for our kids it is for our health it is the revenue of the country if you look at that that is a way that we can probably move forward food security is a matter of survival it's a serious matter of survival we have to take it seriously and we should never never give up in pushing the agenda food security from my standpoint is the power of a nation and we have the capacity to do it for ourselves but we need to, like my colleagues have said we need to get it right so it's about time we have that yes and I think that will not be the last time we will have that conversation in fact after that consultation I think we need to come back again and look at the results by then I'm hoping that the ministry with its team looking at the next three years the policy we will be able to see something tangible some good return so I really want to thank you for being here I also want before I end remind persons about our CMOS fiesta on October 16th World Food Day at Fodor it starts at 10 o'clock and it ends at 6 o'clock everything to do with CMOS definitely come down there and see it the various derivatives of CMOS from the CMOS other processors from the farmers from the school children we want to have a family day of course with entertainment you know complementing the activity so be there in large numbers so that you can enjoy yourself again thank you for viewing the program and remember agriculture is our business eat fresh St. Lucia's Best the money stays right here thank you for viewing and thank you gentlemen thank you Mr Kopin here thank you