 సవికి మారోగశింర్. చారోసికి పటరొటియాయాయాడి కారోటాకిజి కారోటానరా మారరాళేవిలా పీనినిలి క౿కిమికికికాకి పటెరోనికికిహి పటర� that we have good service to our clients which includes multiple stakeholders including our FisherFook and we want to ensure that we do that in a participatory way so that we include them in the process and we develop sustainably, make sure that it's done environmentally responsible because that is the resource base. And as part of that we have a few projects lined up for this financial year we collaborate with multiple partners to support funding technical expertise and support because with the staff of 35-37 people it's not possible to do everything because you know the fishery sector is a very large sector although we come after agriculture but we are very large sector, very important sector and so we leverage all of that support to get initiatives done for this year, some ongoing projects but for this year we have some exciting initiatives lined up that includes the Yubek project which is called the Unleashing the Blue Economy in the Caribbean it's a World Bank funded project, they have some agriculture inputs as well but there are very exciting initiatives for fisheries some of them include the continuation of our FAD program and improving the FAD program and a lot of our fishers are speaking about the benefits of the fish aggregating devices and how it supports the reduction of use of fuel it really supports them being able to go to one location fish and come back quickly to be able to secure their markets on land we also have improvements in terms of quality quality of fish is one of the taboo topics that a lot of us don't speak about so there will be some initiatives to help improve the availability of ice for our fisher folk at the various landing sites also to provide coolers to support ensuring that we have the maintenance of the coal chain from the point of capture right up to the point of delivery to the consumer so we want to equip our fishers and give them that support to do that and the third component would be and this is within this year the third component looks at the safety at sea this is a topic that we will never stop speaking about over and over and over again the safety at sea component our vision is to have all our boat captains trained and certified at boat masters in compliance with the international maritime organization requirements which is also a requirement of our national maritime authority housing we won't be able to do everybody but it's a start it's a start to get our captains well trained because we want to ensure that they know what they're doing a lot of them are very competent let's give them that they've learned from others and they can do but as we expand the blue economy within St. Lucia and we expand opportunities we want to ensure that our fishers are well capable of navigating that blue space safely and with respect for other boaters and mariners so that's why we want to implement that as well there will be some other components of it in the Yubek project which would include some legislative changes to improve the sector as well as some support for other components of the sector I know there was some device they had on the boat in terms of tracking how did that go? it's actually going quite well we've gotten a lot of interest in terms of boating operations and safety our program on boating operations and safety that is one of them we are slower to implement than the interest of the fishers so I'm happy to know that the fishers are indicating interest both owners want the device they want to have it on the vessel yes we have a percentage of owners that are on the fence still and we respect that we want it we're trying to facilitate ensuring that it's there and we're trying to set up the institutional structure to support it which would mean that we would need individuals to properly monitor to go out and support the fishers if there's need for change in the device or installing it etc so we're working on that this year to ensure that we streamline this into the department's program of work the activities for this year under the Yubek program one year you mentioned the fishing ports and the ice machines that will happen under this program yes so that is going to be happening under this program it's called under the component three of the project or the program I should say that component is dealing with food security and quick response to issues within the sector particularly due to COVID-19 and so forth we have one year to implement it so it's a very tight timeline so that component is one year and the focus is on the fad the fad development the focus is also on the refrigeration and getting the standards improved in terms of fish quality so most of our fisher folk cooperatives have indicated that ice is an important aspect of the fisheries valley chain so we want to make sure that we have the availability of ice at the landing site so that fishers will use it it's one thing to educate or build capacity to say you need to have ice you need to have a cooler you need to do this and that but you don't provide support or help the fisher folks adapt and so that's where the input is being given to help them adapt to the new global situation where you must make sure that the food you are eating is safe and quality is good under the safety measures too I remember the upgrade of the fish port themselves at the landing sites where the cleaners are cleaning the fish and that January was in a mess and I know they did some work there is that extended island wide? yes so under the fisheries policy we talk about the fisheries policy in one of our programs under the fisheries policy onshore fisheries facilities and auxiliary support is one of the priority areas and under that one of the strategies is for us to develop a life cycle maintenance plan for all the fisheries facilities and life cycle maintenance plan means that you are taking a look at the facility and assessing what will need to be done in the next 50 years from now as we go along a broad view point so that annually we can plan and prepare and make sure that we address the priority needs it's counter-intuitive to have donor funding to give you a facility infrastructure that costs millions of donors and allow it to deteriorate the little bit of money I know it's a lot for a small island development state but the input and the investment for gradual maintenance will help secure your investment in the long run so that's why we wanted to give some emphasis to that and there is also going to be a budget to support infrastructure improvement we have quite a few pockets of funding to support that as well not only from the Ministry of Agriculture but recently we had a discussion with the Ministry of Commerce under the Corporate Department and they also have a pool of funding so we work in collaboratively to help support improve better the fisheries facilities I noticed a lot of work has been done in Schwaze I know there was a problem with siltation and that really affected the fisheries from going out and coming back in and that is being addressed now tell us about that Fisheries facilities particularly shows when it was constructed we had some challenges with sedimentation as you may be aware in coastal engineering once you start interfering with the course with any type of hard structure and so through investigation we realised that that situation could possibly be averted by having some counter measures being done so the Government of Japan through eco-corporation supported all the studies, the years of studies that they have done and modelling to come up with the best case situation to improve the situation so we have Hazama Ado Corporation who has been contracted from Japan we are right now on the ground doing construction works to put in the counter measures which is a second groin and an underwater breakwater in the facility that will divert the currents and help improve the amount of sediment reduce the amount of sedimentation coming into the port so we are hopeful that as soon as these measures are completed and the plan is for it to be completed in October of this year the shows of fishers will see some relief in terms of solarisation are you all looking at especially where you have the refrigerators and ice machines using solar yes so the corporatives which is one of the things that we indeed support that we have our fisher folk empowered to source their own funding to go out and look and support themselves rather than only depend on the department of fisheries and that was a very positive thing in our eyes that they went out and looked for funding support to look at solarisation so right now we are working with them to see how best we can put together this initiative because solarisation especially if you do it after the construction of your facility there is a lot that you have to consider and so that there is some funding to look at how can we retrofit and improve the facility to be ready for solarisation so all of that is going to be thrown out doesn't mean that the solarisation panels will come this year but the preparatory work will come and you will see where there is a possibility of going solarisation now based on the stage the facility is at or if we have to do additional works before we can actually implement but this would be a game changer for many of the corporatives and their members because utilities are one of the highest costs for them in terms of managing the facility because they are responsible whilst the fisheries facility itself is the property of the government of St. Lucia the corporatives societies have been entrusted to manage the day-to-day operations and I think it's important to be said that the corporative will implement rules or regulations on how the facilities are used so they might charge for example to use the washrooms that money will help support cleaning, buying cleaning supplies hiring somebody to clean so we ask our officials you are watching agriculture on the move don't go away, a lot to come vessels should at all times proceed at a safe speed that the captain can take proper and effective action to avoid collision and be stopped within a distance appropriate to condition and circumstances even at slow speeds your boat will create a wake look behind at your wake this can have on other boats people in the water or the shore travelling at the speed shown on the speed restriction sign does not guarantee you are not creating excessive wash when navigating near in or through a mooring area drive slowly and keep the wake to a minimum and keep a look out for people in the water small dinghies and trailing ropes to determine a safe speed take the following factors into account visibility traffic density how easy or difficult it is to move the vessel including stopping distance and turning ability state of the wind current, navigational hazards and draft it is also important to always keep a look out to monitor landmarks, navigational hazards and the captain's blindside for more information on obtaining a license to fish contact the department of fisheries welcome back to the program agriculture on the move of course we are dealing with fisheries this time and with me is of course our chief fisheries officer Symit Williams Peter Symit we were talking about this is very very important and we are at that point to today where we are rehabilitating our fishing the fixtures after that is done who is going to monitor to ensure that it does not get back to the state that it was today very good question so the department had initiated what we call a memorandum of understanding that would formalize the roles of different agencies formalize the role of the cooperative so they understood clearly what their role in terms of the management of the facility was as well as formalize what the role of the ministry of agriculture acting as the government of St Lucia's role and we have established sort of a committee made up of various agencies that would have some interest in the management of these facilities the ministry of infrastructure and that management committee's role is to provide guidance to the cooperative as well as providing to the department of fisheries priorities in terms of maintenance and with the life cycle maintenance plan the department will be able now to use a bit of information to request support and funding for maintenance and the committee will also be able to support the cooperatives in terms of general guidelines so for example one of the things that have been done is to provide the cooperatives with guidelines in terms of a contract for renting out locker rooms so that it's done properly with good governance so that if there's an issue you can address it carefully and it's not done ad hocly so that would help support structure in the management of the facilities and that's where the vision is for us to go that the cooperatives the board etc have a good good governance as to how they manage the facilities they're equipped with the the guidelines so they can use that to support they have the framework so they can use that and the fisher folk understand the roles of the different agencies so it's not but the government built this and I can use it as I please but the cooperative is there to create some type of order some type of standard so that the facility doesn't get back into the deplorable states very deplorable states we do not want this to happen but it takes three of us holding hands the fishers, the cooperatives and the ministry holding hands and being in the same sink as to where we want to go so is that the first time that formula will be included that is actually the first time that we are doing this in a formal manner and providing the guidance in a formal manner so this will help support the future because we recognize that there was a bit of ad hoc where we were doing things and so we are trying to move in terms of streamlining things improving how we do it there is a reporting process the cooperatives play a role they can voice the priorities structures to how we help and also what we do underground in terms of our operations because we do not the facilities are for all fishers not only members all fishers we realize of course that for example the locker rooms we don't have enough locker rooms to serve everybody that wants a locker room so there has to be a system where you give fairness and you apply equity and equality in giving out the locker rooms the locker rooms are intended for fishers particularly both owners so they can store their gear etc that's who we intended for and to the process of getting us back on is going to be a tough one but we need to get there one of the issues that I'm very happy to hear is coming back on stream the jetty for miku give us an update on that because the fishers in miku long overdue it's long overdue and we as a department we're very happy that there has been some progress in providing the the fisher folk with some relief and we available we've been supporting the process we're just waiting for it to see we can continue moving along with it but I think this time around we will have a jetty that's more in keeping with what the needs are and the expectations and the environment of the area so we're on stream with arts and we're hoping that we can get this done as quickly as possible the other thing that has taken the the demand is pretty high I got a call last week asking because that program it goes worldwide people are calling because they want to know about the CMOS program they want to buy CMOS where are we the department of fishers with that program with the producers CMOS is one of our big success stories I would say for any agencies responsible for development CMOS is one of these that we can highlight some really good models one of these is we've been able to see exports in that sector which is very good for the economic development of the people involved we have been able to see value added opportunities so the value chain is developing which is what we want to see as well you have people being trained and certified so there is a lot now that we can see only government driven which is again what we want we want to see the people in the sector empowered and taking it and developing it with government supporting providing policies and the environment so we are seeing that happening where people are branching out into business opportunities and growing and exporting so as it stands now the CMOS industry is doing very well some of the challenges that they are experiencing of course is additional markets they are trying to work on that one of the issues that we had was in terms of the quality making sure that our practices met the import market standards which I think we need to be sharing that with our processors although it is that when you are looking at exporting you have to meet the demand or the expectations of the country you are exporting to and that means you need to upgrade your standards of how you do things and the Senusia Bureau of Standards have been supporting them in that export in Lusia has been supporting as well of course the Department of Fisheries and so we have seen the support in terms of drying tables, better standards we actually have a few projects in the pipeline we are actually ongoing looking at where they harvest where they grow CMOS because that was one of the the consequences of well there is a great market for export so now everybody wants to get into CMOS but we have to do that responsibly we have other stakeholders other people using the area so we have to do that one of the things that the department has been working on is looking at technology where we can look at growing CMOS in deeper water and we have seen some success with that we have gotten support under the COSFISH project which is from JICA Government of Japan funded and we have a JICA export here with the Department of Fisheries stationed with us and he has been working with our team to implement that so it is growing CMOS on rafts so it is a new growing method it is in deeper water and we have seen a lot of success in CMOS and in PI are you serious? yes and the SHOZELL Fisher Folk have actually taken it on board which is one of the again great success stories where the president of the SHOZELL Fisher Folk has championed it they have people on board the SHOZELL PI secondary school the students are also involved so there is a collaboration there is also a partnership with the Association in terms of purchasing and selling as well so we see just by our inputs in terms of the raft style we have been able to help throughout the entire valley chain so that actual raft design we are working to improve the technology and to ensure that because we see some success also in terms of disaster risk reduction we are there we are there so apparently when there is hurricanes a lot of our farmers lose the stakes and they lose their their products but when we had a we had a recent event a tropical storm event and what we did we did an experiment where we lowered the raft right down to the sea floor and we kept it midway and there was a lot of success for the one that was sunk right down to the sea floor so that could be a method where if you are aware that a hurricane or tropical storm event would be coming you can lower the it is actually a technology from the pacific that was being adapted for St Lucia and these are the other things that have been beneficial because the department had done a exchange with some of our sea more farmers to the Philippines and all of these types of activities learning exchanges, going to other countries seeing how things are done helps you bring back information that may not be wholesale but you can adapt it to your situation so it looks very promising there has been quite a bit of interest in it and there is a potential for expanding to other sites value added I know a lot has been done but do you believe that a lot has been done in a strategic manner in terms of streamlining in terms of what the buyers want I know at one time in VA4 they had the sea moss powder well they just took a teaspoon put it in everything is added to it and I remember a friend of mine came from Martinique specific for that and he wanted the container a week up to now nothing will be so I mean they are working with them to ensure that there is a processing plant and something is in that regard incidentally there is a processing plant probably has a sea moss I know probably yes and that's the partnership they have with the shows Fisher folk that they actually put in from them so they sort of put it from the different farmers and so forth I think some of the challenges of course at the department our expertise lie more in terms of production methods and harvesting or resource management and being environmentally responsible there is whilst exports in Russia has provided support in terms of export potential and making sure that they meet the market demands from an export perspective we have the Minister of Agriculture we have our research quarantine unit that provides support in terms of phytocyanin for export there is a business development component that I believe as a government we can support greater particularly from an agriculture end point to see how we can provide that small business development improvement so I think that's where we are trying to help and bringing sort of donor funding and expertise on that and that's why we have the Taiwanese recently final words from you not enough time there is a lot happening in the sector and I think we probably need to have another session a part 2 but I think what I will end with is indicating to our all our Fisher interests that's not only for Fisher folk but people who are producers, the lay person if they are interested the department will be launching our Fisher folk information hub which is a WhatsApp community where we will be sharing information via WhatsApp I know people don't like too many WhatsApp groups but it's not going to be it's only admin and we will be sharing information so it's a way for you to know what's happening in the department in the sector and keep informed so thank you very much for being here and by lots of information a new one I like the one with the CMOS out there thank you for being here and I wish you success moving forward thank you so much you have been watching Agriculture to Move thank you for being the program and remember Agriculture and Fisheries our business and eat fresh say Lucia's best Philip Sidney saying goodbye and see you again Agriculture on the Move Agriculture on the Move Agriculture on the Move