Department of Agriculture prepares for GAP Programme

(ZIZ News) — The OECS Commission and The Inter-American Institute for Co-operation on Agriculture (IICA) will be conducting a series of “Train the Trainer” Programmes in Good Agriculture Practices (GAP).

ZIZ News spoke with Agriculture Extension Officer and GAP Program Coordinator, Mark Adams who gave the objectives of the program.

“GAP stands for Good Agriculture Practices and this trainer at the training workshop is a master trainer who would come in to the federation and train a group of people in the area and the persons who are being trained would be the persons who would continue to train farmers and other Extension Officers in the area”, he said.

Adams noted that the program would help to educate farmers and other stakeholders about the health and safety methods in food production.

“This programme is very important because it brings awareness on food safety. Just to give an example, in the case of lettuce, which is a fresh vegetable you eat raw, there was a case a few years ago in the states where a farmer used manure that was not properly composed and it caused E-coli and Salmonella that is a bacteria which is bad for your health and caused some sickness and also death in some cases. It is very important to know about the health and how to produce good quality crops and healthy crops”, Adams explained.

The three-day training programme includes classroom sessions and the practical exercise of auditing a selected farm.

The workshop will take place in St. Kitts and Nevis from April 11 to 15.