 The Roots and Tubers Symposium provided a platform that brought together key stakeholders at national and international levels to foster, stimulate and support the improvement of tropical root crop production and utilization. Farmers in St. Lucia who have traditionally grown tropical root crops such as cassava, yams, dashing and sweet potatoes were given the opportunity to engage in dialogue with representatives from the Ministry of Agriculture, Woosk Caribbean and the St. Lucia Marketing Board as well as other sector agencies where they shared and compared knowledge on how they can contribute to the transformation of global agri-food systems. Among the several sector challenges highlighted were the reduction in root crop production, land availability issues, as well as access to inputs. Climate smart agricultural officer attached to the Woosk Sustainable Agriculture in the Caribbean's SAC project, Dean Averell, explained that root crops are an important part of the region's food supply. He says the purpose of this discussion is to explore solutions that can help improve production and further enhancing Lucia. And you would have heard we talked about the access to planted material for example. So a significant contribution that can be made almost immediately is tackling nationally. How do we identify the root crops that are available? How do we then now begin to mass propagate and get planted material to people who may not necessarily be a large piece of land but get the planted material to people who can grow the stuff? As we know, root crops are not necessarily cash crops but Cardi did present on the potential for six weeks sweet potatoes so all of these things are things that we are looking forward to seeing and the results of all of the various experiments and all of that. How do we now use all of that in the sector to advance production, to advance processing, marketing and all of the other factors that help us to build an industry surrounding root crops? According to the Acting Deputy Director of Agricultural Services of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Food Security and Rural Development, Camille Jabatis, root crops represent a great opportunity for responding to climate change as they are able to withstand adverse weather conditions when well established. So today's conversation essentially looks at, you know, where are we at with those major root crops? The traditional root crops, the non-traditionals like topitambu and ginger and arrowroot and these crops, what are the opportunities, what are the challenges and what are the opportunities to enhance production, productivity, give farmers a better chance for sustainable livelihoods, looking at the issues related to food security as well when it comes to root crops, a traditional root crop nation producing and consuming an assortment of root crops. So this is intended essentially to do a rain check, where are we at and what are the opportunities moving forward, what needs to happen in order for us to make it even more meaningful in terms of farmers and producers and agro processors, livelihood securities and also its contribution to food security. Mr. Jabatis reiterated the imports of tropical roots and tuber crops in meeting global food security needs, improving stable foods and creating new opportunities in St. Lucia's food supply as the Ministry of Agriculture continues to implement CARICOM's mandate to reduce food imports by 25% by 2025. From the communications unit of the Ministry of Agriculture, I am Anisia Antoine reporting.