 Two or three years, we've had two significant developments in the world. We had the COVID-19 pandemic, which came on in late 2019-2020. And now we have the ongoing war in Ukraine. And both of these global events, they have been a lot of talk on food security and how is it that countries are going to sustain themselves? How are we going to feed ourselves with all those events going on having to be dependent on world markets and having been connected into that global system? And so with all of these global events around us, we come to a space where we want to highlight what is it that is important in our country in regard to sustaining ourselves in terms of feeding ourselves. And so I want on behalf of the Ministry of Youth Development and Sports to commend the Rosa Youth Alliance for organizing this young farmers market and to applaud all of you who have come in to display your goods, your products. What is it that you are in? What is it that you are doing or what it is that you are contributing to food security in St. Lucia? These farmers markets are not just an exhibition. These are real people contributing to what we purchase and how is it that we feed ourselves. We as a country need to have food that is accessible, food that is affordable, and food that is also high in nutritional value. And St. Lucia, I believe we are able to do so, probably not in the quantities that we may want, but if we try, there's a lot that we can do to be self-sufficient. So today is really a small insight into those who contribute to what we have on our place, what we are supposed to eat that we are producing. We always say to eat locally, grow things locally, and sometimes we don't purchase the things that we grow locally. So today I trust that those of you who are here, those of you who will be coming in a little later, what sample, what is it that our farmers have on display today. So on behalf of the Ministry of Youth Development and Sports, I would like to welcome all of you to this farmers market and trust that it is just going to be a beginning of something that will be sustainable and that we can find partnerships with a lot of other organizations so that this can continue. In closing, our Taiwanese mission has been quite instrumental in ensuring that this farmers market takes place. And so we would really want to thank the Taiwanese mission that's headed by Ambassador Chen and all the officials for this good partnership with young people in putting on this young farmers market in the Roseau Valley. We trust that we can do this throughout St. Lucia where we can find young farmers who are willing to come and put in their goods and produce on display as well. So let me welcome you and I know that once we are here, we are going to have a wonderful time together. St. Lucia, I say welcome to the inaugural youth farmers market as somebody who has been intimately involved in agriculture. I know this is the first and certainly I see this setting a stage for something different in St. Lucia. When you have the youth champion in a cause, you know that it will go far. So my welcome is saying we're on the right path. The Sustainable Agriculture and the Caribbean Project is one which is funded by the Government of Canada through the Global Affairs Canada GAC project. So what this Woosk Caribbean project wants to do is to see that we can cause some deliberate intervention in seeing some economic prosperity among women, youth and what we call marginalized men. So many times in agriculture we see these men in agriculture who are taking part but they do not champion their cause. They sometimes work as farm laborers and stuff like that. So what we want to do is to ensure that we make gender sensitive interventions in agriculture as we speak. So the SAP project has seek to partner with EECA and we're hoping to see that we extend our partnership with the Taiwanese mission to advance youth in agriculture. The St. Lucia Agriculture Forum for Youth, Slafi. I think people in my age group might be aware of Slafi but we started Slafi years ago under another hat and Slafi has been dying. So what we felt best was to use this platform to revitalize the Agricultural Youth Forum. So on June 9th, we are having a first meeting for many years to revitalize youth in agriculture. It's a drive where we will be pushing or advancing membership for youth in agriculture. So what we would be doing is lending support because I'm no longer youth. So the intention is seeing this as a platform and we are happy that the Ministry of Youth, that the Ministry of Agriculture has championed and caused us to be involved in the change in the landscape of agriculture in St. Lucia. So to this I say welcome to this event and if you have not heard about the SAP project, this would be the beginning of many things to come and we hope we can partner with you, the youth in Rosso Valley, the women, men, everybody, welcome. And to this we say good luck and all the best for youth in agriculture. Like others have said earlier, the pandemic has wreaked havoc on the workflow for a lot of us. So I really appreciate this opportunity to be able to come out and sell my produce. Currently I'm selling turmeric powder, cassava, farin and local succulents and kakhtai. Putting to agriculture, I have always been someone who's been interested in plants. My grandfather was a farmer on both sides. My grandparents before me were always into farming. So it's something I grew up with and I believe that it's a very important industry especially in St. Lucia with our high import bill and with food. I think that we really need to do more in terms of consuming what we grow. With regards to youth, I think that this is a wonderful opportunity to get more youth into farming because in St. Lucia most of our farmers are already of age and you find that when these farmers go into retirement age and they can no longer work, there's no one to take over their farm. So I think that this initiative is very good to encourage more youth to go into agriculture because it needs to be a continual business for the future generations. It's my great pleasure to join Director Mary Wilfield to attend this farmers market. Now you see we have the blessing of the rain. I say water is the most important thing for agriculture. I'm so great I saw so many youth entrepreneurs, youth farmers in this farmers market. We heard Ms. Eugene say she is no longer a youth but when I enter this farmers market I find myself become a youth again. I want to commend the Ministry of Youth Development and Sports and the community to put this farmers market together and also the efforts of Taiwan Technical Mission led by Chief Daniel Lee. I also like to take this opportunity to thank the Ministry of Agriculture for their unwavering support for all the technical and agricultural technical cooperation between Taiwan and Senusia. Since Taiwan introduced farmers market to Senusia, Taiwan Technical Mission Tienauea's Ministry of Agriculture organized more than 30 farmers markets across the country. And I say the farmers market is now only the best channel for farmers to showcase and sell their products but also a good instrument to bring community people together and closer. I'm also great to see so many communities willing to take this opportunity and organize farmers market themselves. I believe with the support of Ministry of Youth Development and Sports and Ministry of Culture and all the related ministry we can achieve more. Taiwan will work with the government of Senusia to revitalize local economies, to promote food security and also push more for youth entrepreneurship and youth business.