 Agriculture on the move. Agriculture on the move. Agriculture on the move. Agriculture on the move. Agriculture on the move. Agriculture on the move. Good day again, St. Lucia. Welcome to the program, Agriculture on the Move. My name is Philip Sidney. Today is a man talk. Men are talking today. We're looking at International Men's Day, which is Sunday the 19th. And of course, we want to look at some men who contributed meaningfully to the agricultural sector in St. Lucia. With me today, to help me do that, is Mr. Barry Innocent, who is the Cardi Country Representative here in St. Lucia. Welcome to the program. Thank you, Mr. Sidney. My pleasure to be here. Great, great. Barry, you have many heads, many caps. You have won in the ministry. You were the DDA in the ministry. You were the president of what? International Men's Network. International Men's Network. You have too many caps, man. Too many caps, too many. Anyway, we'll talk about this one. International Men's Day. Tell us about that. How did this come about? It was Trinidadian, actually. He had a celebration of his father who had contributed significantly to his life. He had a little football competition that went on and after the football competition, he decided to commemorate that day and use that day as November 90th as a day to celebrate men and men internationally. And it spread across the globe. However, it has not fully been officiated yet by the United Nations, but it's currently been recognized by a lot of countries from Australia, England, almost across the globe. But it's a time that is given where the men and their contribution to their family, their community, their society, and even their job is highlighted. And men are encouraged to be better fathers, better sons, better husbands, and basically better contributors to their environments. Okay. So, in the past, I know you have had some programs, but how has it been for St. Lucia going back a bit? Well, for St. Lucia, what we observed is there's two full things happening. I've observed and there's been reported that there's an increase in the way fathers take care of their children. In fact, when you go to the preschool or the daycare, you'll see oftentimes fathers carrying their kids. You know, there's a bit of a more interest shown in the fatherhood these days, I find. And a few other stakeholders have highlighted that to me also. I mean, you also have a few cases of a few cases of delinquency that men also spoken about. But generally, I find when I go and drop my daughter at kindergarten, I see a lot of fathers there. You see the way they carry their children, the way they deal with their children. You can see there's a greater sense of fatherhood, which I'm very happy for. I suppose the General Relations Department is doing a good job. And all the other stakeholders that are involved in the churches, the NGOs, they all are playing their role in helping us, sculpting our fathers to be better fathers and better men, generally. How does your network look at the vulnerable young males out there in light of what's happening here in St. Wusha, as you know? What are the positives that you can bring out of those men? Okay, well, we just came out of a boys' demand conference recognizing, well, in collaboration with the General Relations Department and Ministry of Education, recognizing that they seem to be from reports. A lot of the violence happening is boys and young men doing it. I mean, there's even been reported some of the so-called heat men, actually boys, what, 15, 14, 16, for what I meant to say, some officials. Also, when you look at school dropouts, the statistic is showing that you have more boys dropping out of school than girls. When you look at tertiary level, like university level, you have a lot more women aspiring to go and get further educated than men. So there's definitely a need to give men a little push, a little encouragement to become better men and better husbands, better fathers and better managers, whatever they've been made stewards over. Further to that, I know recently there was a launching of a project that International Men's Network and the Ministry of Agriculture came together through funding through CDB, Caribbean Development. And we funded this project called the Boys to Men Mushroom Production. Because we have found out that mushrooms is one of the lucrative products. And niche market, but a lot of mushrooms have been imported in St. Lucia. And we, in collaboration, we have developed this project, the Boys to Men Mushroom Production Project, which is also called, I think, some of the increasing employment for the males, young males in our St. Lucia Society. So that's a good move. And I'm hoping that this pulls through and is implemented. And from the sounds of it and the look of it, the local Ministry of Agriculture is pushing it. So it's a wonderful initiative and looking forward to success from it and getting a second batch of boys to go in there. I think the Boys Training Centre would have boys in that, they care. The boys from care would also be part of that. And generally vulnerable boys, so they can be introduced to another form of self-employment. Correct. But one thing I want to say, though, from my observation, I'm thinking, if so many of these young boys and young men are involved, not so many, but those that are involved in selling drugs and have footmen and middlemen and doing that successfully undercover, but they can't even really hide the money or show the money because they're afraid that they'll be caught. But it tells us something. It tells us that these boys and young men have business acumen. So you just want to shift them into... They're entrepreneurs. Yeah, they're good entrepreneurs. Just that it is something illegal. Exactly. Just trying to shift them from a legal product to a legal product. That's where the martial production came in. And I'm having a discussion about creating other products for them and bringing other young men into it. Also, we're young women also. But there's just a need to give them a different product to work with that is also lucrative and have them change their lifestyle. And not only that, I think added to that, you also have this youth economy. Yes. That's another avenue that they can get some funding from. You know, even to go into the same mushroom and other agricultural commodities to assist in lowering our food import bill. And then by in so doing, you build a new cadre of entrepreneurs, okay, businessmen, and like you said, if they can do the illegal thing so lucratively, obviously... They have the business acumen. Exactly. They have the footmen, they have the middlemen, they have the distributors, the wholesalers. Exactly. All this happening. I want us to look at the men who contributed meaningfully to agricultural sector in San Jose. And one that came to mind almost instantly is Mr. Sir Khalis George. Okay, yes, yes. This gentleman, he nurtured a lot of young men. A lot of young men. He trained many, many, many, including myself. In fact, he's my mentor. I mean, he was a research officer. He was the head of the Training Center at Union, the Cadet Corps, the Cadet Training Center. I go train myself, okay, and many others, and we are what we are today, right? He ensured that we went to school to further training universities, et cetera. And of course, he's a soil scientist. He did a number of trials, varietal trials, spacial trials around the island. This man contributed a lot of meaningfully, and that is why... What I liked about him was his professionalism. Oh, yes. The way he mentored some of the young men, and even he did this as an extent, into being professionals. The way your department at work, your punctuality, the way you address people, the way you address your clients. Yes, yes. Very professional. Yes, very, very professional. And from there, he became the minister for agriculture. Yes. And went further to the minister of infrastructure. Yes. So he contributed at the highest level you can think in this country. Yes. And that's why he got this award. Yes. That he's knighted. Yes, yes. Yes. Well deserved. And mind you, he is still going on. His science is there. He is able to discuss with you. He said to me, I did interview him, he said he wanted to train young people still because he's still available. Wow. And he said, yeah, he's able to do that. And I know he will do, he'll do such. And also, bravo to you, so colleagues, you know, for your contribution to the agriculture sector. And of course, don't forget Julius Polius, another one, Mr. Mitchell. All those persons were under the research division. Yes. Ronnie Pilgrim. Even Mr. DeMarc. You know, and you also have Mr. Leons. Those who were under the research division. And there are many others, though. However, I looked at those persons under research. And they did, I mean, a miraculous job. These guys were professionals. They were real professional. And when you put examples, you know, good examples to the younger professionals. Definitely. And we, I mean, a lot of those guys have retired now. Yes. But they are still contributing to the sector. Okay. Extension. And those of you I don't know well, that's before your time. Laurie Yogis. This is a gentleman that was head of the extension division. And this goes on. You had a guy called Mr. Bobre. You know, who did a lot. And he also got an award from the Queen, right, for his contribution to the agriculture sector. Mr. Andrew Daisy, Mr. Albony Noel, Mr. Cuthbert Henry, you know, Mr. Hilary La Force, Stephen Best, Rudolph St. Hill, Rufus Leann, who was also the Chief Extension Officer. All right. Faswa Henry. We had a gentleman called Mr. Eden Pemberton. Eden Pemberton was a, was a Dom Nikon. All right. And he was in charge of Central District. When I joined the ministry, he was my supervisor. Wow. You know, and I learned a lot, a lot from him. You know, we had Lenithi Toli. All these guys. You had Anthony Filgers. Anthony Filgers was one of those. He was like a historian. Oh, yes, he was. And he's still there. Yeah, he's still there. And I was told he's supposed to be writing, writing a book, you know. He's writing a book on the history of the agricultural sector in San Ocean. Definitely. You know. And for my own master's degree dissertation, I spoke with him. I got some references from his, his book, Unpublished, and used it in my dissertation. Yeah. I mean, he had a lot of interesting insights. This guy has an archive, you know. I'm telling you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He is, he is something else. I think he was very professional. Yes. And of course you had Ezekiel Joseph. Yes. Who was an extension officer. And then he moved up and up, became the minister for agriculture. And he is, he's also a farmer. Yes. And he's also a. And he's still doing farming right now. He's still farming. He has a passion for it. He has a passion for it. Okay. And he's involved in agro-processing. Yes. You know. So he has contributed meaningfully, you know, to the thing. Mr. Dauver. Yeah. Mr. Dauver was an extension officer. Yes, yes, yes. You know. Yeah. I mean, he just, he just recently passed. I think the cocoa industry had a significant contribution. Yes. In fact, he was a member of the St. Lucia Agricultural Association. Right. Where they should ship cocoa. Right. And he had a farm. In fact, he, before his passing, he was a farmer. He was in, in Dennery. Yes. You know, he had a big farm in Dennery. Yes. And he contributed meaningfully over the years to the agricultural sector in St. Lucia. Definitely. Definitely. All right. He was a minister for agriculture. Moving. He was an extension officer. Riding a, used to ride a bike. And he, I mean, the stories that Mr. Dauver gave us, you know, I mean, very interesting. Between Canary and Slavic Canaries, there were no motorway roads at the time when he was, and he used to ride his, his, his bike through Tishime. Hmm. You know. So this guy's, this guy's contributed a lot, you know, to the agricultural sector. Yeah. And what I like about some of them, like, at Dennery Field just, when we, when I first started extension, at Dennery Field just told me, do not buy a car right away. Yeah. You tell me, walk the area first. Yes. Find out where all the bridges are, all the churches are, all the schools are, create a map of the area responsible for, so that when anybody has to take over from you, or when you, when you look at your map, you know what everything is. Hold that point. Yeah. Hold that point. Yeah. Because we do for agriculture, because very interesting. Okay. You are watching agriculture on the move. Welcome back to the program. Agriculture on the move. Of course, we just looking at some international men's network. And also looking at the contribution of men in St. Lucia to the agricultural sector. You know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, the roles you have. You know, you know, you know, you know, we are using the network between the the brash And there are so many of them who do very, very well in extension. Those were extension in the days. And there's a gentleman I want to mention, Mr. Bernard Thomas. He is still alive of the yesteryear extensionist. I think he's the only one alive today. He's of the lives of the moon. And Mr. Bernard, if you're watching, take a bow, take a bow, because he did well. In fact, he was the supervisor for the Northern Extension Division in Babonot. And he did very, very, very, very well. Then you had the engineer in the section. I remember Mr. Fimber Desi. He was an engineer at the time who was involved in that one. And we had another engineer, Mr. Leos, from Babonot. He was one. Then we had people who worked at Christopher Cox. We had Monero. We had Jarrier. Phoenix Jarrier. Yes. And then we had Jones Bissette. This guy is like Jones. I mean, he passed already. But this guy, when he came to learning our dreams and on terraces, and this guy was really, really, really good. And if you go back to the days when we were as extension officers, we were well-rounded. Yes. The approach was different. At that time, also, an agricultural extension officer was not limited to just crops. He was a generalist. You did livestock. You did crops. You did a bit of engineering, a bit of everything. If the task is a little too high for you, then you would call in the more experts in the particular field and call them in. Right, right. And I'll say something. I find that when I first joined the extension division, I joined it because I felt like, in extension, I'd get the opportunity to practice everything that I was taught. But when it moved to just crops, this was a bit of a disappointment to me because I felt, OK, now I'm back to the crops. Yes, yes. When you had a full availability of different fields and I would accept it to practice. Exactly. And of course, I'm looking at the ministers in the past. Of course, Ariel Ovey was a minister. Then you had Peter Josie. Correct. You had Fidel Henry. We had Cassie Lyres. You had Ezekiel Joseph. Ignatius Gea. And of course, Gregor Mason. Moses Jabatis. And Moses Jabatis. And then you also had, of course, our now Alfred Prospect. Right. And the funny thing about those ministers of agriculture, all of them were agriculturalists. Yes. All of them were farmers. Yeah, they were farmers. All of them were agriculturalists. Trained agricultureists. And they had passion for agriculture. And they had a passion for agriculture. Now, of course, you go into fisheries. Horace Walters, Vaughan Charles, Philip Marti, Mr. Nelson is now the deputy. You have Rufus George. Nigel Lawrence, I don't know if you know that guy. He's from the library. He worked, but he's in Dominica. Right now, he worked in Dominica. Christopher James, who just passed recently, Lambert Vitalis, and Andrew Jean Caban, the guy who was involved in CMOS production, right? Down in the PR area, this guy. Those are the guys who did a lot when he came to the fishery sector. Then when he came to management, you had Mr. Cyril Matthew. Oh, yes. This guy, I mean, you know, extraordinary, you know. He was a farm management specialist. And when he came to discipline, you couldn't get a man more disciplined than this guy. Right? Of course, you have Mr. Barry Moffillis here. He's our PS right now. Right, Dr. James Fletcher. Yes. He was another guy, right? Dr. Darius Gabriel. And you had Dr. Gabriel. One of the very good managers. Very good managers. All right? John Carrick's, you know, and, you know. Then you had Mr. Ogis, then Ogis, who was our deputy. You know, and, you know. So this is a culture that's meaningfully connected to the sector. In the information unit, you have people like Neil Paul. You had Yad, Warrell, you know, George Cherry, Ted Budt, Teeble, Zingson Butcher, myself. I was in there, I'm still there. They took the agriculture to a heart. Yeah, yeah. And of course, you have the young ones right now. You have Zarrick, you have, you remember Albert Sinclair. You had Butcher. And Butcher, yeah. All these guys were present. Then in the marketing unit, because you have so many sections. You know, Vincent LaCobbin, Netadius, now. And they have Dr. Esna, they have Terry. You know, there was a full produce chemistry in the Soviet Union, where they did concentrates, right? Mr. Lubin was the one in charge of that. Mr. Destang and Evans, Martin Evans, you know. And don't forget our drivers, you know, Matthew, you know, and Chaco B, you know, these guys, you know, constantly meaningfully, you know. And the forestry, Gabriel Charles. Gabriel Charles. Coco, if he was called. Passion, but not. Renown for the forestry sector. Oh yeah, he was passionate when it came to the forestry. He pushed for that passing of the law, where you no longer allowed to shoot birds. Yes, yes, yes. And of course, the bird population said it was spanned. Exactly, the parrot was one of the things that he was pushing, all right? Michael Bob, Adam Toussaint, Brian James. And of course, our president minister, Prospect, he was the chief forest officer. And then, of course, I'm Donnelly, and then of course, Michael Andrew. Yes, Michael Andrew. And the list goes on when you come to forestry, okay? And the livestock, you had Kenny Daniel, Eden Compton, Dr. Monroe, Dr. George. And Eden Compton, you must highlight him because I mean, he had a significant contribution to the eradication of the emblematic, yes. The emblematic, yes. He did a wonderful job on that. Fantastic job. And you know, he himself is a very good manager. Oh, he's a very good manager. And a professional. He was actually one of my mentors, one of my remote mentors because I admired when I come to work in the morning, all of I try to get to the office before this man. Oh, I got you there. I'm always there before me. And he's always there. And he's late to leave. He's late to leave. First to reach. Last to leave. And he comes on the weekends. On the weekends too. Working hard. You drive on a Sunday. You see it's packed right there. Always well-organized. And he's now in charge of a special project. Always well-organized. You know, and I mean, he's reporting when he comes to a special project, maculite, you know. And, I mean, He's a professional. He is, he is, he is. He's efficient, effective. You know, and that is what I would expect. He's young people to actually. Yeah, they can use that as role models. Yeah, they can use that as role models. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he inspired all of that. He was very calm when he dealt with people. Oh, yes. Very, very, very, very calm. Very, very, very good interpersonal skills. Definitely. In the banana industry, I don't know if you remember Dr. Essel Edmonds. Yes. Right, he was a nematologist. Right. You know, he did a lot of work, right? I think he was one of our ambassadors overseas. Yes. You had Dr. Reed. Takes us to Windban. Windban. Oh, yeah, the Windban days were good days. And Dr. Basgal Williams. Yes, yes. Of Errol Reed. Errol Reed, yeah. Who also contributed significantly to the banana research. Definitely, definitely. And of course, we can't forget Pat Joseph, you know. Of course. The famous Pat Joseph, man. Of course. All these guys contributed. One of the people I got in the fishery sector was Atkinson from Jamaica. Oh, yes, yes. Who introduced the Tilapea fish. The Tilapea fish is a nuture, you know. And of course, Eustace Monroe is another famous name. Correct. And there are so many others. I mean, I would have the time to really mention their names. But they contributed meaningfully to the agricultural sector. These guys had agriculture as a passion and in their hands, you know? Yes, yes, yes. Yeah, they fought for it. They pushed for it. They advocated for it. They lobbied for it. They encouraged people to get into it. And mostly, they owned farms also. So they're very practical in their approach. Exactly. And when you go back to extension, as you mentioned earlier, our extension days in the early stages were totally different. Different, different. In my day, I mean, there's a funeral in my area. And most funerals I'd go to. There's a fair outgo. In fact, I used to do Deborah. I used to do Deborah, Gaara area. And sometimes on the weekend, I would have a tent. I'd go and create a tent. Set up my tent on the beach at Grenance. I'd just been away for the weekend, you know? Let me tell you. It would be interesting. One of the things I call it, one of the litmus tests I always give any of the young officers, if you're working in an area and there's a first communion in an area and you're not invited, something is wrong. They're wrong with you. A first communion in the area where doors are open to everybody, you're not invited. And you're not invited to Christian a child in your concert in your area. Something's wrong with you, my brother. In fact, because of my training with livestock, I'd like to have, when you sometimes do that with the stoke here, when you have a cow or pig or goat have difficulty giving birth. Giving birth, yes. And one time after having to practically practice that on a cow, you know, I have this stoke here to save its calf and to use all my different, what I was taught to save that calf. When I came back home a year later, I remember one of my rural stakeholders called me at four in the morning and told me her daughter was giving birth, but the paramedics are taking too long to come. Can I come and help? I came there thinking well, I came in thinking I'll have to put it in my vehicle and take it to the hospital. But when I reached there, I realized that the young did this, you have to give birth. So I had to put on my livestock officer cap. Take out my shoelace, actually get a piece of hot water, put my shoelace in hot water to sterilize it. And I delivered that baby, you know. But I had to use what I was taught for this stoke in Agnes. Exactly. And delivered it so well, when the paramedics reached there, they asked, who did that? And everybody pointed at me, they said you did it like a doctor. Yeah, man. It's the only thing they didn't like was that I used a shoelace. But that happened to me once. Imagine I came, I just came from studying on holidays. And then there was a farmer who had a sheep. Yes. He was just about to give birth. And all of a sudden I'm sitting there and I'm hearing the groan and it's in pain. But I'm seeing two legs out. The last subject I did before I came down was livestock production. Right. And the same topic was this stoke here. And then, so I pushed my hand and I felt two front legs. But then when I checked it, really checked it, I realized it was two different front legs. One from each. There's more than one cow. There's three in there. So it's impossible for that sheep to give birth. Right? So I have to push one leg in, get another leg of one of the kids, and then bloom, bloom, bloom. Or if it came out. If it came out. I saved the three and I saved the mother. Exactly. You know what I'm saying? Why? Because of my training. Yes, yes, yes. You understand? Because we were all rounders, my brother. All rounders, all rounders. You understand? All rounders, man. I used to go out and line out on the field, on the contour drains, gridder drains. Yes. And we had a road tracer. But after a while, just with my eye, I used to do it. Yeah, because in those days, when agricultural extension was trained in all different things, engineering, livestock, it was a generalist. Yes. You know, a lot of things. Yeah. And there's a few things he might become an expert at. Right. But generally, you know a lot of things. Yes. One time, the Wasco came to do some work in my area and they told me they'd have to create a drain there in my yard. So they said they'd come tomorrow. So I just went in the drain and used my training in engineering, lined the drain in the two ropes, digged my drain. When I guys came in next day, the guys said to me, when did Wasco come there? Is it about to come there? I did it myself. You think? I'm an agriculturalist. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And the guys were like, amazing. Definitely, definitely. Before I end, I just want to say thank you to Moise Patricontini Focussial Center for giving me this trophy. And for my contribution to the Creole media landscape in St. Lucia. So thank you very, very much. You need to get to your world while you're alive. That's very, very important. So thank you. Thank you very, very much. Just before I end on a sad note, the previous one is really getting out of hand now. And there's a situation where, of course, in the banana's case, I tell you there's a stealing banana's. Some people went and they put actually pins and needles in the banana's. My goodness. People, I know it's difficult, but please don't go down that route because people are going to get damaged. But again, it's a lesson that is sent out there. You, persons that are buying, buy from reputable farmers. Exactly. Not from persons who go out there and steal a farmer's produce. And that's a problem. Please, I saw some photos that circulated on the media today and it's not nice. It's not nice. Because the farmers work so hard. They work hard. They work hard. And when they go in there, they cut 10 of the bananas, man. You don't do that. Yeah, that's not fair, that's not fair. And don't talk for livestock. Goats. So my comrades are still about to end, you know, any, you know, final words from you at International Men's Day, what is it that you plan? Well, I just want one minute to do that. I just want to encourage the young men there that can hear me under the sound of my voice to pursue high education because it helps you to step up. You know, you can never go wrong pursuing food education. It's a knowledge you will get that you can use whether on the job or not on the job. Whether you get a promotion quick enough or not unless you have that knowledge in your head, it can be applied in various aspects of your life. Very good, very good, sir. And I believe that moving forward, we need to work and encourage those young people out there. Yes. More so now. Yes, more so now. We can do in our community, let us do, let us work, let us work hard. Let us impart the knowledge that we have. Let us encourage, let us use we as mentors for these young people. Yes. That's very important now because to be honest with you, to, you know, to bring up a young person now in this environment is not a nice thing to do. So I want to thank you for being here and I wish you well, my brother, in what you're doing. Thank you so much. You've been watching Agricultural Move, I want to thank you for viewing the program. And remember, agriculture is our business. Eat fresh. St. Lucia's best. The money stays here. Thank you again. I'm Philipe Sidney. Goodbye. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Thank you.