 Honourable Alfred Prospe, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries, Food Security and Rural Development. Honourable Sean Edward, Minister for Education. From the Embassy of the Kingdom of Morocco, councillor Mr. Said El-Milahi. From the External Affairs Ministry, Ms. Nancy Nicholas, Head of Political and Economic Department. Ms. Dalia Clement, Foreign Services Officer with specific responsibility for the Kingdom of Morocco. The Embassy of the Kingdom of Morocco, Ms. Kinsley Frances Brown, Foreign Services Officer. From the Department of Agriculture, the Deputy Permanent Secretary, Ms. Soraya Niles Regis, the Chairman of the NFTO, Mr. Larry Andrew, Head of our Communications Unit, Ms. Amanda Fey-Clock, Staff of the Extension Advisory Services Division, especially invited farmers and other guests. Good morning. It is my pleasure today to have the privilege of chairing today's ceremony. It's one where we are recognizing the contribution of the Kingdom of Morocco to the development of the agricultural sector here in St. Lucia. This particular event is part of what is called the Soil Fertility Mapping Project that is funded by the Kingdom of Morocco. Now some of you probably have no idea what it is about, so I want to take maybe just three minutes to give you a synopsis of what this particular project is all about. So this is a project that dates back all the way to 2014, and essentially stems out of a recognition that in order for us to maintain productivity in the agricultural sector, the management of soil and plant nutrients is really, really important. And as part of this process of integrated plant nutrition, as part of the process of maintaining soil fertility and soil health, the Kingdom of Morocco became part of a project that was being implemented in a few Caribbean territories, and among those Caribbean territories included Dominica, Grenada, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, St. Kitts, to mention a few. It was recognized that among the many challenges that farmers in those territories face is maintaining productivity through proper plant health. The global objectives of the project include reinforcement of scientific and technical partnerships between Morocco and the St. Lucia and the other islands in the agricultural sector. It also integrated rational management for fertilizers for durable increase in productivity and quality of agricultural products. A further output was to maximize farmers' profits and enhance farming efficiency while maintaining good environmental stewardship. Some of the more specific objectives of this particular project was to design and develop an information system and soil database for local and national decision makers. It also looked at developing fertilizer recommendations for major crops and establish appropriate fertilizer programs. And today's ceremony is part of this specific objective of developing specific fertilizer recommendations. The project also sought to elaborate the geo-reference soil fertility information and expert system for the country, enhance human and technical capacity of farmers, extension agents and developers in terms of soil information and fertility monitoring and management. And finally, in terms of specific objectives, the project sought to enforce the extension system in devising soil fertility and fertilization guidelines for major crops. Today's event is one of perhaps three such events in the past where the Kingdom of Morocco has supplied fertilizers to St. Lucia as part of a soil fertility project. This particular project consisted of eight work packages. And I think it would be important for you to be aware of what those work packages were. The first one was soil mapping. The soil mapping sought to look at all literature that was available in terms of what has happened in the past, in terms of mapping our soils and the fertility across the island. The second one was a soil fertility assessment and mapping. During that process, there were samples collected across the island and these samples were tested at laboratories. And that information was sent to the Kingdom of Morocco where recommendations were made for the specific fertilizers, including that which we will be receiving and distributing today. A third work package was the development of fertilizer recommendation for crops. So the various crops were identified and very specific fertilizer ratios were made, recommendations were made for specific fertilizer ratios. A fourth work package included development of soil fertility information and export system for St. Lucia, including a GIS fertilization system. What this is intended to do is that a user of the system could go in, identify their particular location and get up to date information in terms of the condition of the soil, the fertility of the soil and the recommendations in terms of what would be the best fertilizer recommendation for that specific location. The fifth work package also looked at training and human capacity building. And for that particular component, St. Lucia has enjoyed some training in Morocco. Some of our technicians have enjoyed visiting Morocco and getting firsthand experiences at the laboratories at some of the universities. And we are thankful for that. The sixth work package included technical capacity building and looked at strengthening our plant laboratories, strengthening and spending, making investments in GIS equipment and so on and so forth. Of course, the seventh work package, sorry, was communication and results dissemination. And we have had some dissemination in the past. We are going to continue with the information dissemination to ensure that across the island, persons are aware of these investments that are being made by the Kingdom of Morocco in our agricultural sector. And of course, the final work package included project monitoring and evaluation, which is a critical component of any project that we are implementing. And so today we want to say a big thank you to the Kingdom of Morocco for funding and supporting this initiative. As I said, from all the way 2014 up till now, we are still receiving investments in that particular area. And so we'd like to say a big thank you on the behalf of the government and the people of St. Lucia. So without further ado, it is my distinct pleasure to invite to offer some brief remarks today. Our councillor, Mr. Seid el-Mellahi. It's a great pleasure for me to attend today's handover ceremony of Moroccan fertilizers donation, relating to the year 2020. In the framework of the implementation of the technical bilateral cooperation programs between the Kingdom of Morocco and St. Lucia for the year 2020 and the commitments made by this embassy in St. Lucia, the Moroccan government has donated a consignment of 3,924 bucks of fertilizer to St. Lucia. On behalf of His Excellency, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Morocco in St. Lucia, I would like to formally hand over the donated fertilizer to the government of St. Lucia for distribution to the local farmers. Ladies and gentlemen, agriculture and food have always been a priority for Morocco's economic and social development. The agriculture and food sectors play an essential role for the Moroccan economy, together with fisheries and forestry. Agriculture accounts for nearly 13% of growth domestic product, more than in most of other economies in the southern Mediterranean. The agriculture and food sectors are strategic sectors for the economic inclusion in Morocco and not only for young people living in rural areas. These sectors also hold considerable potential for women's economic empowerment. These dynamics contributed to putting sustainable agriculture and food production among the priority of the country's economic and social development. Over the past years, Morocco and St. Lucia have shown a strong common will to consolidate cooperation and partnership ties in the political, economic, security and cultural fields, taking advantage of the enormous potential for cooperation and the assets offered by their geographic, geo-strategic position between the Atlantic and the Caribbean Ocean, as well as the dynamics of their respective economies. The last decade has been exceptional in all respects. The cooperation relations between Morocco and St. Lucia have experienced in recent years a significant dynamic in various areas. In this regard, I applaud the achievement in agricultural sector in St. Lucia and the fruitful results of practical cooperation between Morocco and St. Lucia. I hope that donation will further strengthen the capacity of St. Lucia for agricultural development and benefit farmers. Morocco is fully committed to provide assistance and support for the economic and social development of St. Lucia and will continue to work with St. Lucia to deepen solidarity and cooperation. I am confident that Morocco and St. Lucia practical cooperation in various fields, including food security, will be pushed to a new height and bring more benefits to our two peoples. In conclusion, I would like to express my warm and sincere thanks to you all present here with us this morning. Okay, thank you. Let me say that I'm extremely pleased to be here and I'd like to thank the Ministry of Agriculture for inviting me to be part of this morning's ceremony. I know this, Mr. Jabatis, introduced me as the Minister of Education. I'm happy to be the Minister of Education. I love being the Minister responsible for education. But this morning, you would forgive me if I tell you, I'm a much happier parliamentary representative than a Minister of Education in a setting like this. The reason being, I have represented for 11 years a constituency that is predominantly agriculture-based as far as economic activities are concerned. And bananas and farming generally is still the mainstay of the rural economy in Dennery North and I can say the Dennery Basin by extension. And so any time the government of St. Lucia, whether acting alone or in partnership with friendly governments, finds itself in a position where it can make resources available to farmers, it is something I would always support whether it's by having a presence at a ceremony like this or being a voice of advocacy in the parliament and elsewhere. So today, I want to say thank you on behalf of the constituents and farmers of Dennery North and by extension the government of St. Lucia. And I'm sure the Minister and persons taking the podium after me will also express their gratitude to the government and people of Morocco. In an environment like today's, it is extremely important for small island developing states like St. Lucia to strengthen and deepen the relationships we have with countries that are better placed to assist us. We are at our wit's end as a government trying to meet our monthly wage commitments. Every single month, the government of St. Lucia is paying $48 million to pay salaries. $41 million for mainstream public servants and another $7 million for the statutory entities. And don't forget, we are still picking up the pieces as far as COVID is concerned. And operating in a COVID-induced environment has been extremely difficult. But I am not afraid, I'm not perturbed because I know we are a resilient people. But any form of help and assistance we can get from friendly governments, we must appreciate, we must value. We must value because they too would have had the challenges. COVID did not spare any country, small or large, developed or developing. Everybody had the challenges. For the government of Morocco to find resources in this challenging environment and make available to us, we have to appreciate it. We have to value the gesture. And the farmers here today, I want to say to you that it is not another of the many donations from the government and it's because we pay tax, we are entitled. We are getting the resources, as I said, against a backdrop of extremely difficult circumstances and we must value, we must appreciate and we must make good on whatever is being presented to us today. And so, excellency, on behalf of my cabinet colleagues and I'm sure the minister will speak to that. I want to thank you immensely for this gesture and I'm hoping that the bilateral cooperation that we've enjoyed with your government and people will continue to bear fruit for both countries. Thank you very much and let us have a wonderful day. Now I was given a speech to read but I guess some of my ministry staff would understand I'm not very comfortable reading all the time. But I must say just like my cabinet colleague mentioned, it's a pleasure to be here, to really be part of this hand in over ceremony this morning. It's been one year since I was given this portfolio as the minister for agriculture and every single meeting I attended with farmers groups and other persons in the agricultural sector, the call was made by my government to give support to the farmers in terms of fertilizer. And I'm happy today that I'm receiving on behalf of the government of St. Lucia 3924 bags of fertilizer that will go to our farmers. I remember having a discussion with the Deputy PS and came well in terms of a strategy or plan as to how to distribute the fertilizers because we do not have enough fertilizers for every single farmer in the country and what is more importantly is that we have various blends. So I'm hearing that there are four different ratios so one farmer may not be able to get one bag because the one bag on its own will not deliver the type of nutrients or the level of nutrients that is required by the farmer. So we may have to give farmers four but at the end of the day some farmers will not get. So we have to come up with a plan as to how best to do it because just imagine farmers for years have been calling on government to give support because of the high cost of fertilizers. And I understand the concerns and like my colleague minister mentioned the fiscal situation of the government is not right for us to be able to get the funds to be able to assist the farmers. So this is why this 3924 bags of fertilizer I hope will go a long way to assist the farmers in meeting their production targets. Like Kim well mentioned our soils are degrading very rapidly and I remember visiting a few banana farms last year and a few farmers were saying that even the fertilizers that they use are not meeting the type of yields or not resulting in the type of yields and production on the farm because our soils are getting very acidic and even when you apply the NPK like we have been doing in the past it may not be able to give the farmers that level of production and this is why our Morroco Soils Fertility Project revealed that type of information that was provided to the Morroco government and based on that we were able to prepare blends or the appropriate blends of fertilizer that would help us to deal with our problems. I want to see how happy I am and I want to thank the government of Morroco for the support it has given to the farmers. I want to make a special appeal to the government maybe next year to try to double the amount or triple the amount so that all our farmers can be happy and comfortable in terms of getting the right quantities. I know it is going to help in some way but I know very, very shortly after we distribute the fertilizers I will get the call that Minisagricall by Yonset Farmer sell a lot of Farmer pageant I know that this is something I have to deal with but we cannot have 3,924 bags of fertilizer and expect to give it to 5,000 farmers. We have to also bear in mind a farmer will not leave Souffre François Jacques or Chausel to get here to collect one bag of fertilizer so we have to find ways to be able to reach out to them in terms of getting those fertilizers to them. So we have discussed that at the ministry level but at the end of the day I am hoping that our farmers will be happy and they will make very good use of the fertilizer.