 The Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries, Rural Development and Food Security Honourable Alfred Prosper continues his familiarization with a visit to agricultural divisions in the south of the island. Minister with responsibility for agriculture Honourable Alfred Prosper, on the continuation of his tour, got a first-hand look and updates on the ongoing developments at the Violet Agriculture Livestock Centre. The livestock station currently in phase 1 will see the development of approximately 30 acres of land where its operations will focus on growing the livestock industry in tangible ways once completed. Services to be offered will include animal health advisory and treatment services to facilitate improved livestock production. Minister Prosper expressed his satisfaction with the station's progress and noted that the station will provide many opportunities particularly to young farmers by producing breeding stock and allowing them to multiply for the purpose of selling to farmers. I see tremendous opportunity for our young people to get into livestock production. I see tremendous opportunity for our young people and our current livestock farmers to benefit tremendously in terms of making money from livestock and I am really really happy to see the beginning of this station in terms of providing the services to our farmers because I think at this time our farmers desperately need that type of service and I was very happy to know that the ministry is focusing on more in-depth research being done in Violet in terms of livestock production. The second leg of the tour continued with a visit to Regions 3 and 4 where the minister met with the staff of the Regions to discuss the programs in place for farmers. This was followed by a visit to the Prairie Alasini unit where the minister was apprised of the various challenges being faced by the unit. I know this unit from what I gathered has tremendous challenges and one of them that concerns me very much is the fact that insurance coverage has not been dealt with in a manner that will protect those officers given the risk involved in the performance of their duties. This is something I think the ministry needs to tackle here on and I'm hoping that in addition to problems with lack of vehicles and uniforms and office space those problems will be addressed in the short to medium term to ensure that these people feel comfortable performing their duties at the level and standard attack that I expected. As Minister Prospect continues along his familiarization tour, he reaffirmed his commitment to improving the agriculture industry of St Lucia. From the communications unit of the Ministry of Agriculture, I am Anisia Antoine reporting.