St. Kitts and Nevis Department of Agriculture met with the livestock farmers and crop farmers farmer recently to discuss food security amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Having held discussions with them on Saturday…it was revealed to them a number of things that the Ministry of Agriculture is undertaking to give support to the production of their farming capabilities,” said Minister of Agriculture Eugene Hamilton.
The crop farmers were relayed the information on how the government will be supporting their farming activities, said the minister.
“They were provided with information that government will support things like fencing, medication, feed, protection from dogs, some building materials and technical advice,” he said.
Minister Hamilton stated that the support of the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI), IICA and the Republic of China (ROC) on Taiwan has already been recruited. “They were engaged in that meeting and agreed to support the Ministry of Agriculture in carrying out its duties,” he said.
The farmers were given 50 pounds of string beans, 40 packs of red star sweet peppers, 84 packs of bright star, 36 packs of yellow star, 40 packs of heat master tomatoes, 20 packs of dark bell melons, 20 packs of star bright melons, 20 packs of cucumber, 34 packs of Chinese kale, six packs of corn, 25 pounds of squash and 20 packs of cabbage.
“When we give a pack of seeds, we are talking about a pack which holds at least 1000 seeds,” said Minister Hamilton. “They could cover something like 12 acres of sweet pepper, six acres of tomatoes, nine acres of melon, five acres of kale, two acres of cabbage, five acres of string beans and 1.5 acres of corn.”
In addition, said Minister Hamilton, the government has engaged with a number of individuals to plant slips for the farmers “especially to support those farmers who are actively farming and including those who are doing backyard farming.
