 Good day viewers, and welcome to the program, Agriculture on the Move. I am Philip Sidney, your host. The day with me is Mr Eugene Gabriel, who is the founder and managing director of E and E agrochemicals. Welcome to the program Mr Eugene. Good afternoon Mr Sidney. Great sir. I am a Yatu, Yatu Sidney, Mr Eugene and Gabriel. Who is Eugene Gabriel? Tell us about yourself. Eugene Gabriel, founder of E and E agrochemicals. I started this company back in 2020. It was because when I saw the need for it in our sector if we are going to survive our food security crisis and I decided to develop my agrochemicals, I consider myself a pioneer in the sector in the sense that I have seen what is out there and everything that is out there is imported. So why not us, why not Sandwisher, to develop something that could actually increase food production in a safe way? But why agrochemicals really? What sensitizes you going into agrochemicals? Well, majority of my family is into agriculture and I have seen a lot of friends of mine fall sick over the years, cousins of mine who are farmers and they use their agrochemicals incorrectly or a lot of people that want to eat more healthy foods. So that's why I actually push in the organic agrochemicals use or the bio pesticides that are safer to use than the alternatives. I mean I'm not saying I don't use the alternative but there are safer ways to use what we produce. Okay so when you began, what are the local ingredients that you use to develop your agrochemicals? Yes when I first started out in 2020, I used a lot of local ingredients things that were actually around my home that I realized that could actually help the plants grow properly and that's when I developed my first product, agromax. The trials were difficult because of climate change. When I developed the first product, my first mistake as an entrepreneur I made 75 gallons of a product that I didn't know that would work. I sent it for testing, it took about a month and a half to go to Canada to come back and then I was satisfied with the results. I gave out over 2,000 samples of the product to make sure when I put it out on the shelf that I could stand up to all scrutiny that would come my way. How long ago you began out? 2020, I came back home in 2019. So you are into agrochemicals plus you also do fertilizers right? Yes, well the fertilizers that I do are liquid, so they are bracketed under the agrochemical sector. Okay, so tell us exactly the number of brands that you have under the agrochemicals? Right now I have 5 agrochemicals on the market, they are all nutrient products. There is agromax, Carl 10, Carl McBee, Carl Knight and Nitro Pro, presently. Hopefully by February we should have at least 6 to 7 more products that I have created within the last several months. I am just waiting for all my analysis to come back from the lab so that I could start mass producing because we have been doing tests in Dominica, Barbados, Antigua, Grenada and all have been wonderful and those are products that are not out on the shelf yet. So we have those test plots for the Caribbean to make sure when we now mass produce what we tell the farmers is what the farmer gets. Okay, so let's look at St. Lucia. So you have test plots around the island? Yes, I do. Okay, so when you began your first set of chemicals you went around selling the ideas to the farmers? Yes, I do. Based on what you know is happening out there? Yes, I played the role of like an extension officer, I would take my bag, put my agrochemicals in it and go to the farmer, ask them what is the issue that they are having and a lot of them, they always the same thing, either we have blossom and rot, we have not enough fruits, fruit spoilage and that alone triggered me because I know the ingredients that I use could actually help those farmers and lo and behold, when I started to distribute it now farmers will call me for a product that was not on the shelf. So I decided you know what, let's do this. And when I started, I started in a little juice water bottle and then they started to complain, the label was too small and then I realized if I'm going to do this, I need to do this properly. And then I actually got in contact with some people in China for some bottles and you could never tell AgroMax was a local product on the shelf. Okay, so who is really monitoring your products in terms of certifying that they are ready for use in the market? Okay, well I work closely with the Ministry of Agriculture and IECA. So anything that I develop, I make sure I come to them first. I speak to a lot of extension officers, even the pesticide board, I've had numerous meetings with them. All my documents for my agrochemicals, I make sure I bring it in and bureau standards. So whatever I say that is on the bottle is what that is certified. Okay, all right, so I know you have worked with a number of farmers who are involved in the seven crop program. Yes. Especially Watermelon, right? Yes. Okay, tell us about your success stories with that particular chemical. Okay, with that particular farmer, Kansas, he has been farming for over 20-something years. And he said to me, he needs something that would double his crop yield. And I'm talking about tonnage. Okay. So I'm like, okay, we will go into an agreement. If I double your crop yield, you promote the product for the farmers. That was all it was. Okay. It wasn't anything else. But you teach a farmer to use agrochemicals properly. You do it in the way that we supposed to do it, and safely. To use your PPE, use your proper equipment, you monitor your crop, how we supposed to. And our first set of watermelons we did, he got 14 tons or 14 van loads, when normally it was only seven he used to get. So he doubled that. So he doubled that. And we saw the increase in the post harvest. So he would store it longer. They would stay longer. They would be sweeter. They would ripen earlier on the vine, so which means he would harvest earlier also. Okay. So that alone, he was happy. And even the cost of the agrochemicals he used to use back then to now decreased. So he saved a lot in his pocket, so his profit margin was wider. So you're looking only at soil health. Are you looking at the control of pests and diseases also? Yes. I actually am. I'm in the process of actually creating one fungicide and one insecticide. I have created them already. I'm just finishing the documents to take to the pesticide border and waiting for my documentation from the lab to put them together, do my labels and bring them to be restored under pesticide but to get them registered. Interesting because I still want to go back a bit to ask you, what gave you that mind to go that way and to know the various raw material that you can get locally to put this together? Okay. So we're growing up and I would take a book from my grandfather. He has always been my inspiration. Okay. He always said to me, anything that is around you that the bee lands on or the birds eat is healthy. Yes, that's true. It's not poisonous. Think of what they do with it, how they process it themselves and then process it yourself. Okay. We know that, for instance, bananas, if our bodies is low in potassium, we know sometimes we pick up a banana to eat. Right. In 10 to 20 minutes we okay. Banana is a sort of potassium. And I saw that and I started to use it like that. Molasses helps with phosphorus and these things. It helps to build microbes. So I put it piece by piece together until I had one product. Okay. Okay. So you're dealing with your N, your P's and your K, complete fertilizer? Yes. But they always carry microbes and macros. Okay. Yes. So for your nitrogen, do you do just a nitrogen based fertilizer? Yeah, I have one nitrogen based fertilizer called NitroPro. Okay. That was developed in conjunction with a company in the U.S. It's called NitroPro. It's a liquid urea product. But the difference between it and the normal urea that farmers buy, when you use granular urea, you have to water your plant a lot. And if you don't do that, it burns your plant. Two, you lose a lot of money using granular urea. Because if the sun is too hot, it evaporates. True. If the soil is too wet, it drains out in the soil. With NitroPro, within 72 hours, your plant uses 70% of it. The other 30% microdoses your plant for six weeks. Four years doesn't burn. NitroPro has all your microbes and macros that you need to feed the plant, from transplant to flowering. Okay. So the four weeks that you're looking for, instead of constantly applying urea or applying a micronutrient, the product NitroPro now is literally microdosing a plant, feeding your plant slowly. So all now you have to focus on is controlling your fungus and your pests. Okay. Okay. And when you use much less, and compared to price, a bag of urea is almost $200 or $140. A bottle of NitroPro is in the store is $55. So you could see the difference. The bottle does three acres. The bag belly does an acre. Okay. So you as a farmer knows, okay, I could save money that way. So is it strictly for irrigation? No, it's foliar, drench, or you could use your for irrigation system. So you spray foliar spray? Yes. And I took that example to go into foliar fertilizers from our banana industry way before my time. Before a lot of, well they used to spray by planes to control pests and our banana industry or the gringo like they used to call it was on top. And I realized from the time we started to use more granular fertilizers we end up in issues. So I decided to go that way. Wow, wow, wow. And by your evaluation on the farmers, is it successful? It's a success. It's a success. Even in Antigua, the farmer I have my test, I have never met this man. I literally have never met this man. It's through again, farmer to farmer consultation. My farmer can't just reach out to him and then he reached out to me. Wow. And then I sent him, I sent him the products. And he too is a veteran farmer. And he said to me, his first harvest was his profit of his entire crop that he normally has. Wow. So he was happy and he put more farmers on to me and I'm now exporting to Antigua to those farmers. Hold that point. You're watching Agricultural The Move. Stay tuned, back soon. Yeah. Welcome back to the program, Agriculture On The Move. Of course, if you're joining us now, my guest Mr. Eugene Gabriel who's a founder and managing director of E&E Agrochemicals. Very interesting, very interesting Mr. Gabriel. Are you thinking, so you only deal with vegetables and I also that you're dealing with mushrooms also? Yes. Yes. What sort of fertilizer do you use? Is it the same? Agromax. I actually use agromax to grow the mushrooms. When we decided to use agromax for the mushrooms, it was more to be a more sustainable way and more to get mushrooms on the market for a longer space of time but also to allow the growth of the mushroom to keep his bags longer in his growth room. So when I first started, he said to me he was only getting four flushes. So which means he was only harvesting four times from the mushrooms. We did an experiment where we started in January and ended in January the following year. Wow. So that showed us, okay, if we use that for that variety of mushrooms, we use agromax, this is what we get. And then product by product, we use different of the agrochemicals to grow mushrooms, to see what variety goes with what nutrient that I create. Okay. So right now it's more at an experimental stage per se? So the experimental stage has passed. What we're doing with mushrooms right now in the experimental stage, I have created a biofutilizer from it, which is not yet on the market. We're doing more research. But one of the main reasons for doing the fertilizer with the mushrooms was to control a bacterial wilt. Okay. Through my reading, I realized a lot of overseas companies use mushroom substrate, spend substrate in a liquid form to control bacterial wilt, which we know we have that issue, especially when I had a production, I didn't have a production. So I decided, why not? Why not us? Sure. Why not do it ourselves? Okay. Why not control something organically and do a zero end use? Because right now we grow the mushrooms. After I make the fertilizer, my goal is to actually use the remain, spend substrate to create a bag to grow the mushrooms again or to create a compost. So we have to see those avenues to grow the agricultural sector in St. Lucia. And we have to understand as St. Lucia, if you buy an agrochemical from me, the majority of the money stays there. It circulates within country. The issue we have in waste food security or lack of agrochemical, it enables me now to create more. So you now could grow the crops needed for the sector. We don't have the complaint of shortage of food and this thing. Right now I'm working on agrochemical for stuffs like potato, dashi and yam in the liquid form. It's done already. I'm just waiting for some documents. So once I've done that... You know our soils in St. Lucia, the pH, we have an issue with low pH. How does this work out with the use of your chemicals with our high pH? That is one thing I've always known because we both volcanic by nature. So that's why as part of my nutrient line right now, I have three calcium products. I have pure calcium, I have calcium with magnesium and boron and I have calcium nitrate. They all play a different role in growing the plant. The plant takes each one at a different stage of its life. So that now enables our soil. Even the agro-max has a high calcium because we know these are things that we actually need for our soil. Definitely. And because agro-max now has so many microorganisms in it, it literally enables the transfer of nutrients to prevent again the normal illness we have with our crops like of calcium, lack of nitrogen, lack of magnesium through helping the plants thicken its membrane to take up those nutrients. So it would be much easier. So we have no blossom and rot issue that the farmers constantly complain about once they use the agro-chemicals properly. But do you actually take any soil testing to find out exactly in the immediate area that you're going to use agro-chemical to get up to the pH levels of the soil? Okay, what I have done, I have a few test kits that I take the soil, I could literally tell the pH or I could take the probe, put in the soil, it would tell me what the pH is right there and right there. So I know, okay, this is what you're growing but it varies so much. An example is Marquis Estate. Those farmers get flooded out sometimes twice a year. The pH changes. So you have to constantly monitor it. If a farmer calls me and says, you know what, I had a good cucumber crop last week but you know what, it rained heavy. Now my cucumber crop, the new one I'm planting now is wilting. I know there is a problem somewhere. So it may be an influx of fungus that came down the river and flooded out or washed out all the nutrients he now have been putting in the soil. So he now have to now add the calcium back. A lot of our farmers use lime but what I've been telling my friend, when you use lime today and you expect to plant on Friday, when is your plant going to get that calcium? It takes a while to release. It takes a while to release. So you have to now go into the liquid calcium with a low nitrogen. Which is available immediately. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Okay, so you're dealing now with vegetables and hopefully you're looking at root crops. Yes, root crops. Of course, bananas and plantain, where are we? Nitro Pro. In bananas and plantain for years, we've used urea. Again, it's an expensive commodity that we cannot afford on the scale that we want to do it properly. Nitro Pro has been tested in Guatemala through the company who helped me develop it, which is Chemo International. They did over 34,000 acres of use of that product together with a hypotasium product. And it was successful. It was successful. Even now I have farmers from region 8 using Nitro Pro on table manners. So we know it works once they follow the regimen that we give because we don't just sell your product. A lot of those farmers, we are in farmer groups with them. So we give, we actually post the growth regimen for it. So you know exactly what at week one, what at week two, what at week three, what at week four. You know what is there, what you have to give to get where you need to go. What is the demand like locally? Locally it's increasing right now. Right now it's really increasing. Do you have the capacity to meet your demands? Right now yes, right now yes. But farmers are asking for more local nutrient products and the issue is space. I mean I've been trying to work with the Ministry of Agriculture to get that space so I'm thankful for them. So at the end of the day once I get a bigger space my farmers will get what they need. So now you need factory space? I need factory space. I need factory space to deliver much more. And that will probably meet your export needs right? Export needs also. And where have you been, what other islands have you been working with? Antigua, Grenada and Dominica so far. And you have done your experimental work there with them? Yes I have. And those chemicals are eco-friendly? Yes they are eco-friendly. So you work closely with the pesticide board as you mentioned and the other ones giving you permission to use? How low are the standards? Because when you create a chemical or a fertilizer when you send it for testing that iOS lab sends your document stating that the product is safe, stating what is in that product what ingredients are in that product. So then when I create my label I take that label to bureau standards and let them know this is what it is. Because they have a department for it. So before I even put it on the shelf they now vet it because they don't have a lab but they vet the lab overseas that normally does it. They call them because they have all the information all the information on the document that is FedEx to me. So once I have everything from the international board and I come to bureau standards. Your raw material is going to get locally. Do you include the sagatum seaweed in? No I don't. I don't. Okay but the other material it's ad lib. You can get them when you want. Yeah I can get them when I want. Okay. I can get them when I want. One of the main ingredients is molasses and I have to thank the reminiscer for that. Okay. You want to tell me because that's what feeds the microbes and the main product agromax. Okay. Okay. So I'm happy for that. Alright. So you are island wide? Yes I am. Okay. And you are in say Black Bay? Yeah. Black Bay farmers. No you and me. I'm trying to get into NFTO, Renewken company, Castries on Viewport, Carb Seed, Edwin B. Products in Dennery, A&P in Chousel. Final words from you sir? Let's work together and push agriculture. That is it cannot get better than that. Yeah. We have to push agriculture. No great economy cannot survive without agriculture. Our food and hygiene security. It's a must. It's a must. And of course we have to eat fresh. Yes always. Or what they produce. Eat local, grow local. Thank you again Mr Gabriel for being here. I wish you success. It was a pleasure. I'm sure, I mean this is just the initial stage. I know there are big things to come for you. And of course for our central farmer. Thank you again for being here. You've been watching Agriculture on the Move. Thank you for being in the program. And remember, as I've always said, Eat fresh. Send Lucia's best. Your health is important and the money stays there. Thank you again. I'm Philip Sidney saying goodbye. And see you again.