 It is my honor to address you as we commemorate World Food Day, which is held annually every October 16th as a global event of the Food and Agriculture Organization FAO, to mark efforts to enhance food security and alleviate hunger, in tandem with raising awareness of hunger and poverty. The day also seeks to encourage economic and technological cooperation between governments and non-governmental organizations. According to information on the Action Against Hunger website, around the world modern enough food is produced to feed the global population, but as many as 811 million people still go hungry. After steadily declining for a decade, world hunger is on the rise, affecting 9.9 percent of people globally. From 2019 to 2020, the number of undernourished people grew by as many as 161 million. A crisis driven by conflict, climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic. The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Food Security and Rural Development will be hosting various activities to commemorate World Food Day 2021 under the theme, our actions are our future, better production, better nutrition, a better environment and a better life. World Food Day will help draw the world's attention to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the global agri-food systems, the loss to livelihoods, food insecurity and equality as well as the need to transform agri-food systems. The theme is selected to sensitize and raise awareness of the global hunger problem and the solutions to food security and the world of hunger. The day is also about action and calling for bringing about changes to our agriculture and food supply systems. However, World Food Day is not solely about feeding the world's hungry and undernourished peoples. It is about creating mechanisms for them to be elevated to better circumstances. In order to progress as a nation, we have to ensure systems are in place to teach our people to fish and not simply provide a needy with a fish. That is what, collectively as a nation, we must work towards. Since the onset of the COVID-19, food security received increasing attention and prominence. The emphasis for small island development states, including St Lucia, is to increase local production and enhance food systems. St Lucia's agricultural sector continues to play a dominant role in its socio-economic development. Agricultural trade has been and continues to be a major factor in determining food and nutrition security outcomes and a key driver of economic activity. Unfortunately, our agricultural sector is in a threatening situation. We are asked to make our territory food secure, but we are continuously plagued with many ills, such as climate change, natural disaster, pre-dialectomy and threats of pest and disease outbreaks, to name a few. Presently, our producers are facing a crisis, unlike any they have ever seen, encountering new threats sparked by COVID-19 while they simultaneously endure challenges of market access. As Minister for Agriculture at the helm of the ministry, we wish to provide assurances that we are continuing our focus on bananas, other crops, fisheries development, research, capacity building, marketing, animal processing and natural resource management, in a bid to ensure sustainable livelihoods that is in alignment with sustainable development. So too, will the government continue to provide support through subsidies, concessions and incentives to allow for competitive and affordable local production and exports, all with a view to ensuring food and nutrition security. In closing, I wish to implore all Saint Lucians to support our fishers and farmers and our cultural stakeholders by embracing healthy lifestyles inclusive of diets composed of local fresh and safe produce. Let us all share our fortunes with the less fortunate and play our role in eradicating world hunger. Remember, our actions are our future. I wish you all a blessed World Food Day 2021.