 Honourable physical Joseph, the Minister of Responsibility for Agriculture, Fisheries, Physical Planning and Natural Resources and Cooperatives. I have Mr. Tommy Descartes, I just get to know him, who is the Chief Economist in the Department of Economic Development, Transport Housing, Urban Renewal and Civil Aviation. We also have Dr. Oria King, who is our Director of Agricultural Services in the Department of Agriculture. We also have our permanent secretary in the Department of Agricultural Fisheries, Natural Resources and Cooperatives. And of course we have Glenn Simon, who is also from the Department of Economic Development. You also have our Communication Unit and of course Ms. Anno, who is a farmer, who is a recipient. Ladies and gentlemen, good morning. I'd like to welcome you here to the official Handing Over ceremony of Water Tanks to Farmers as part of the Recovery and Resilience Plan. This is an island-wide initiative initiated by the Department of Economic Development, Transport Housing, Urban Renewal and Civil Aviation under the DVRP project, in conjunction with the Department of Agriculture. For those of you who probably don't know, we are at Laban and Laban has a history, a very long history when it comes to agriculture. I remember when I joined the ministry, I was told about the Experimental Stationery Union had experimental plots at Laban and at the time one of the featuring crops was cotton and they did a lot of cotton here at the time. Of course, it's a very diverse area. I know there are lots of livestock farmers, cattle, pigs and small stock. It's also involved in root crop production, especially cassava production. I know of one farmer who's also doing cassava processing and farin is being exported to Martinique. We also have vegetable production and if you look at the ecological conditions in Laban, it lends itself to the production of kukubits, which is pumpkin, the melons and cantaloupe and also kukumba. I remember also the ministry has been involved in assisting farmers in a number of areas, even in the feeder road program. In fact, going down by Mr. Annu, I remember going down there and they had done some work some years ago concreting that road in that area. In the production of vegetables, water is a necessity. Irrigation of water. And especially we are going, the ministry's program, which is the fruit and vegetable import substitution project, the seven crops, which I'm sure that Mr. Annu is part and parcel of. I'm sure when it is dry up here, one of the problems you have is irrigation. And that's where harvesting becomes very, very important. And the tank, I suppose, has come to use at this point, which is important for you at this junction. So again, I'd like to welcome you all to this official handing over of the tank. I'll now call on Mr. Tommy Descat, who is the chief economist in the Department of Economic Affairs, Economic Development, Housing, Urban Renewal, Transport and Civil Aviation to give a few remarks. Thank you very much, Mr. Sidney, and permit me to adopt the protocol already established. Today, we are very, very happy from the Department of Economic Development, Transport and Civil Aviation to partner with the Ministry of Agriculture in donating over 190 water tanks to farmers across the length and breadth of St. Lucia. This initiative is particularly important for us as it forms part of our medium-term development strategy. And the seven crop initiative that Mr. Sidney would have mentioned is a key strategy under that, the agriculture pillar in our medium-term development strategy. So we see this initiative as being a complement in this strategy. But more importantly, we, in the onset of COVID, the Department of Economic Development and the Ministry of Finance embarked on the development of an economic recovery and resilience plan. And this plan was essentially to help the economy, help livelihoods, persons that are vulnerable. And in crafting the plan, we saw it fit that we needed to include the Ministry of Agriculture because one, while we face the pandemic, we also face a climate crisis. And climate impacts farmers in many ways. We know the increasing intensity of natural hazards and the frequency, but also in terms of the drought conditions and so on. So we are very happy today that we are launching this initiative. We also want to make the point that this complements the, we would have provided 382 water tanks to other institutions, NEMO, health facilities, especially in the event of a natural disaster to have water on hand. And so in total, as part of the Disaster Vulnerability Reduction Project, we would have donated close to 580 water tanks on Island. Added to that, every water tank that has been donated here is actually produced on Island. And so we are also seeing the sort of stimulation of the manufacturing sector and the associated employment that could provide, particularly during this very difficult time. And so on behalf of the leadership of the Department of Economic Development and the Minister of Honourable Guy Joseph and my Permanent Secretary, Mr. Claudius Emmanuel, I would like to see that we are certainly very happy to partner with the Ministry of Agriculture. I also want to recognize the World Bank, because the Disaster Vulnerability Reduction Project is a World Bank-funded project, and the World Bank agreed to repurpose these resources away from other initiatives that was initially planned, but recognizing as a result of COVID that the government would need to repurpose some of the resources to what is the most pressing need at the time. So on behalf of the Department of Economic Development, I would like to thank the Ministry of Culture. I would also like to thank Ms. Anol, who I am certainly happy to see a young female farmer participated and it's an indication that farming is in good hands if we could have young persons participating in farming. So with these short remarks, I would like to thank everyone. And over to you, Mr. Master of Ceremonies. Thank you, Mr. Descartes, for those words. And of course, I'm sure that you'll continue to help the farming community with more tanks, because I suppose at this juncture you have farmers who are hearing about it for the first time and then they want to be on board. And so I'm thinking here, you know, my minister will definitely make a plea to get some more tanks. At this juncture, I definitely would like to call on Ms. Kenesha Ano. I know of the, I don't know if he's a father, Mr. Ano, right? Some years ago, who is farming not too far away at the bottom. And of course, he has been farming for years and he is still consistent. So I realize that he played a good role in initiating you to come into the fall of agriculture. So I'm hoping that you'll continue and to do a good job. So I'll ask you to come in and make a few remarks. With protocols already being established on behalf of Ministry of Agriculture, alongside the government of San Nusia as well as Bryson Company, I would like to sincerely thank them for providing me with this water tank as well as everyone else. It will be of great use, especially for the upcoming chai season with proper storage of water, being able to manage the crops and also my poultry farm. It is, I'll say, I'm happy that young people are being part of this program and you'll be able to help us push us forward in the agriculture sector. Once again, thank you. Thank you, Kenesha, for those supportive words and I wish you well and I'm sure the extension officers will continue to give the support that you deserve to ensure that the water storage is put into good use. And not only having the water stored, but again with such a scarce resource, you need to, the application of water needs to be done correctly. So you have to use the correct methodology in terms of the application of the water as it were. At this juncture, without further ado, I'll call on our Honourable Ezekiel Joseph, the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries, Physical Panning, Natural Resources and Corporatives to say a few words. Thank you very much. Mr. Sidney, I want to recognize my PS in the Department of Agriculture, my Director of Agricultural Services, Mr. Tommy Descat representing the Minister and of course the Department you are working with and most importantly our farmer. You made an observation Mr. Descat, I want to echo that sentiment that when I was tool and I was directed and instructed to be here this morning to participate in that ceremony and I was told I'm coming to Labon, I could understand why Labon, because of course we'll all appreciate that our farmers in Labon over the years would have been experiencing dry weather, significant shortage as it pertains to the availability of water. But I never envisaged that I would be coming to a young farmer's farm and I'm very delighted that not only a young farmer, but a female young farmer whose patterned parcel of that initiative, that program that has been implemented between our two ministries, agriculture and economic development. Let me say on behalf of the ministry and of course on behalf of the many farmers who have benefited from that program, thank you very much to the minister, the PS and of course all those who are involved in approaching the bank and ask them to repurpose the resources to give support to our farmers. As we all know, climate change is a challenge for agriculture. As a ministry, we have done a number of initiatives as it pertains to assisting our farmers, of course those of course those who are very close to water source as far as irrigation is concerned. But our experience here is telling us that we have a number of farmers who are not fortunate to be cultivating near water sources and here it is, when we come up here we see how diversify these farmers and despite the fact that our young farmer Miss Amu is not close to a water source we are very impressed to see what has been accomplished here and I'm happy that we have identified her in donating this tank and like she said will assist her initiative as far as continue to feed ourselves. I must say as a government and I'm happy you recognize that Miss Amu as a government we have under my leadership we have done a lot to assist our farmers especially our small farmers. I remembered we had what we call a youth and agricultural program and my experience working with young farmers they have two major challenges and I see major marketing which I speak to in a while is another challenge but two major challenges. One the availability of resources for them to be able to invest in the initiatives that they have decided to get involved in and the other one is land and that is why when we develop the youth and agricultural program and we approach the curriculum development fund to get grand funding of $3.2 million that was the mindset we have. How can we assist our young farmers who are interested in agriculture and who we can educate and train in new technology because what we are realizing is that our agricultural land is diminishing our population is increasing, our age of our farmers are getting older and older and we need to introduce young farmers into agriculture but how we assist them and that was the mindset and the thinking behind the initiative of the youth and agricultural program. I don't know if you benefited from the youth and agricultural program but the intention at the time was the first phase of the youth and agricultural program was to identify agricultural land belonging to government and what we did we had identified five areas in St. Lucia where we had agricultural land belonging to government to assist those young persons who indicated that they were interested in agriculture and to please them on these lands. In fact in the first phase we looked at 150 young farmers. The second phase was like we explained now young farmers who have the land but need the support and unfortunately we have not seen that our success would have like to see as it pertains to this project not because of our fault but because of how it is implemented in the absence of the United Workers Party government but we are back and we are going to continue to assist our young farmers. The other area that is very critical when I heard you went to the market very early this morning what we want is we don't want our farmers to go by the market and to be selling what our farmers spend more time on the farm and that is why as a government we decided that there is need to restructure the submission marketing board so at least farmers can enter into a contractor arrangement we want what we are advocating what we are advising farmers is that let us in this new dispensation moving forward change the traditional way we are doing things our production should be market led and what I mean by that is that you have a contract you know what is it that the supermarket wants you sign a contract the supermarket you know the type of production they need with the technical advice of the Ministry of Agriculture we can advise you how many acres to put in the ground to satisfy the weekly demand for the supermarket and that is what we are trying to encourage among our young farmers of course the traditional market will be there the classroom market will be there because there are persons who just like it's a form of socializing for them but when we want to have this business approach in our agriculture we are advising our farmers do not go and get up one morning and I can put my hat on and say the same thing get up one morning and say I put in cucumbers in the ground right now cucumbers I was walking this morning I heard farmers shouting minister, minister, cucumber this would be the dollar you know over production because of the traditional way we are cultivating and we need to change that so I'm happy that you are involved and I'm happy that our extension office can continue working with you to give you the type of advice technical advice give it our support financial and otherwise so that is you can be a role model for our young female farmers so I want to say again and Mr. Master Ceremonies alluded to it that whilst we receive 190 tanks we are very grateful for this but I can tell you we are open up Pandora box because there are a number of other persons who are calling parliamentary representatives who are calling officers and saying look Mopahuen tank, Kemenya Mopahuen tank Kemenya Saha and Puefua Suvasaha so Mr. Descartes I want you to to appreciate this and of course to see what can be done I know resources are limited and I understand that but let's see if we can at least scratch some more resources somewhere to see if we can get some more tank especially knowing like you said it has been manufactured locally and the whole COVID environment that we are under right now is quest of creating employment stimulating economic activities in the country so I want to see to Mr. Brice who is the the manufacturers of the tank, his company thank you very much I'm sure there are some arrangements within him and your department to the Department of Economic Development through you Mr. Descartes thank you very much for considering in your repurposing of resources considering agriculture and I want to say to the young farmer here continue the good works feel free to contact your extension officer work closely with your extension officer I and Mr. Sidney can tell you that we are there to help my experience working farmers we are there to help do be afraid to contact your extension officer do be afraid to express openly honestly respectfully what your challenges are and I'm sure with that type of relationship you can only advance so I want to thank you very much for this opportunity and I'm really looking forward for the collaboration between our two industries thank you