Agriculture Department Review And Planning Meeting A Success
(ZIZ Newsroom) — The Department of Agriculture hosted its 21st annual Review and Planning Meeting on Tuesday at the Department of Agriculture Conference Room.
Minister of Agriculture, The Honourable Eugene Hamilton said the meeting provided the Ministry of Agriculture an opportunity to evaluate and analyse the progress of the policies and objectives in 2015.
“This meeting, the name implies, gives us a chance to review what has happened in the past year and look forward to the next year. As we evaluate the plan, we look forward to 2016 and the programmes for implementation and the possible outcomes as a result of those new programmes,” he said.
He reminded the farmers and stakeholders present that cohesion between themselves and the Ministry is the only way to help further the development of agriculture and solve problems such as the drought that the Federation experienced in 2015.
He also urged the farmers to participate in the upcoming workshops this year.
“We are going all out in 2016 to ensure that the farmers get the full support of the Ministry of Agriculture. And so as we go through 2016, I hope that all of us will do what we can to mitigate the losses that we suffered as a result of the loss of water and when we invite you to participate in our workshops please do turnout and may God continue to bless all of you,” Minister Hamilton said.
In his feature address President of The Chamber of Industry and Commerce, Damion Hobson noted that the “Review and Planning Meeting” is essential as agriculture should be recognized as highly significant to any developing nation.
“While neither I nor my organization professes to be experts on the subject of agriculture, we do understand the importance and urgency of bridging the gap between local production and imports. No country in the world and certainly not St. Kitts and Nevis can dispute the significant importance of agriculture to their sovereignty. Therefore, agriculture ought to be treated as a critical strategy for the obtainment and retention of national security,” Hobson said.
The theme for this year’s meeting was “Engendering Resilience to Deal with Global Realities.”