20th Feburary 2010
Meet the farmers’ programme- An overwhelming success!

The first and second in a series of “Meet the Farmer Programme” initiated by the Ministry of Agriculture, Lands, Fisheries & Forestry were overwhelming successes. Several hundreds of farmers attended the first leg held at Fond St. Jacques in Soufriere followed by the second leg at La Caye in Dennery. Parliamentary Representative for Soufriere, Harold Dalson, attended and did the official welcome. Similarly, Parliamentary Representative for Dennery North, Marcus Nicholas, did the official welcome to farmers at La Caye, Dennery.
The proceedings were chaired by Permanent Secretary, Hubert Emmanuel, who gave the ministry’s rationale for staging the islandwide focus group meeting. Mr. Emmanuel said : “To start off, Fond St. Jacques had been chosen, being the “food basket” of St. Lucia. The intention is to bring the Market and Farming Community together and to provide useful information and have frank discussions with farmers collectively in a general forum, rather than calling specific stakeholders to the usual in-house meeting. This effort is intended to discuss the way forward for a diversified agriculture sector and to provide an opportunity to farmers to make their individual tete-a-tete contribution in that process in the midst of senior ministry officials. The two-way process of communication is key.”
The Agriculture Minister recognized the stakeholders at the Meeting and called for the active participation of farmers. He noted, the outreach programme is expected to provide a guide to the farming community and to point out the challenges faced by the Ministry of Agriculture, Lands, Fisheries & Forestry. The minister noted, that the provision of agricultural inputs to farmers was a major challenge, since government had absolutely no control over the pricing of inputs such as fertilizer. The ministry had taken the decision to engage the St. Lucia Agriculturists’ Association to import bulk fertilizer for resale to farmers at an affordable price. He said, it is expected that fertilizer could be obtained below $100, per bag. The decision was taken to encourage private sector involvement in agriculture. In this regard, a market-led approach is being taken in marketing agricultural produce. Minister Joseph noted, that the over 47-year-old St. Lucia Marketing Board (SLMB), as a marketing entity had not changed its modus operandi even with the vibrant changes in the agriculture sector.
Minister Joseph disclosed, that Cabinet had approved the establishment of a Public & Private Sector Clearing House (a modern Agricultural Complex) at Cul-De-Sac to be situated on 8 acres of land near the IRDC at Odsan. This modern marketing complex, which will serve all farmer organizations and communities as a one-stop Clearing House, is expected to be constructed shortly.
The Ministry of Agriculture was also involved in various projects at Union Agricultural Estate funded by the Government of Taiwan. These include :
• Tissue Culture Laboratory
• Aqua Culture – to supply baby fish and fingerlings to farmers.
• Greenhouse Orchid Project
• Eco-Tourism Park/ Botanical Garden – providing a natural linkage between tourism and agriculture
The Ministry of Agriculture, Lands, Fisheries & Forestry is also boosting the agro-processing sub-sector by establishing two (2) Agro-processing plants at Fond Assau and Anse Ger.
Minister Joseph was also pleased to inform farmers of the projects underway at the Beausejour Agricultural Station in Vieux-Fort :
• The modern Meat Processing Facility (MPF) to provide a reliable market to livestock and poultry farmers, and the
• Dairy Farm re-established – for milk and milk-products – discussions are ongoing with interested investor
Plans are also afoot to establish a modern Agriculture Laboratory at the former WINBAN site at Roseau to engage in carrying out scientific research for diseases affecting plants and animals on the island.
It should be noted, that the St. Lucia Development Bank (SLDB) had been re-established to provide low interest agricultural loans to Saint Lucian farmers.
Deputy Permanent Secretary, Dunley Auguste, spoke eloquently about the range of concessions for agriculture and the availability of agricultural inputs. He said, Extension Officers should be approached for relevant information on these ministerial concessions. But Mr. Auguste noted, that the government had removed local taxes on animal feed for livestock farmers. In this regard, the Incentive Regime offered by the ministry can be accessed online at : WWW.MAFF.EGOV.LC
Director of Agricultural Services, Eden Compton, gave an outline of the services offered by the Department of Agriculture. He pointed out, there are five (5) divisions; namely :
• Propagation
• Veterinary
• Engineering
• Research & Development and
• Extension & Advisory Services
The latter Extension & Advisory Services Division serves all eight (8) Agricultural Regions islandwide.
Mr. Compton reminded farmers that Saint Lucia is also facing the effects and impact of globalization and liberalization – as well as the highly competitive free market conditions like other developing countries. But noted, that agriculture has made significant progress in recent years. Besides, agricultural diversification is unfolding progressively in Saint Lucia.

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