Basseterre, St. Kitts, April 21, 2021 (SKNIS): The Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) will be working closely with the Ministry and the Department of Agriculture in St. Kitts and Nevis to increase water efficiency in farming.
Sharon Jones, Technical Specialist with IICA, spoke about a new development project on Tuesday’s (April 20) edition of Leadership Matters – A Virtual Forum Series. It is designed to help the seasonal planting of crops. The seasonal planting of crops is becoming more challenging given the increasingly unpredictable weather conditions with less rainfall as a result of climate change.
“Some farmers at the beginning of March, April, had a very difficult time to get started because they did not have access to water,” Ms. Jones stated while referring to efforts to boost food production during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
“The rainy season as you will remember started quite late last year so, July, August, were very dry, and then the rains really came towards the end of October to December. So, the predictiveness of rainfall is not as it was,” the IICA official indicated. What this does to farmers is that they are not able now to foresee and can’t go into production the way they would like to.”
When implemented, the project will boost farmers’ resiliency in water management by facilitating greater water storage and utilizing it more efficiently.
“You get more from the drop,” Ms. Jones added. “This is very important so that you are now able to plan which crops you will use at what period of time.”
Work is continuing on the project design and will be released later this year.
]]>Basseterre, St. Kitts, October 13th , 2020 (ZIZ News): As part of activities to commemorate World Food Day 2020 the Department of Agriculture in collaboration with the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) launched the IICA Rabbit Rearing Project and Workshop in a ceremony at the Department of Agriculture’s Conference Room on Tuesday.
Representative of the IICA Delegation in St. Kitts and Nevis, Sharon Jones explained how this initiative came about.
The Director General of IICA approached the Caribbean member nations to offer assistance, the Department of Agriculture in St. Kitts responded to that offer and was interested in reducing the burden of food nutrition at the household, they identified the importance of growing a local source of animal protein that will sustain the population, with all the discussion they came up with rabbit rearing.”
She said that not only is rabbit meat healthy, it can also be a viable source of income.
“Rabbit meat is also very healthy and nutritious meal, low in cholesterol, low in fat and I am told that in St. Marten and French countries 1 pound of meat sells at US$ 25 so it is a very good initiative to go on in terms if an industry so with this start I hope each and every one of us considers it not just as a way of supplementing our food but also investing in it as a start to a very viable venture.”
Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Marine Resources, Hon. Alexis Jeffers said that post-Covid-19 we should be able to sustain ourselves through initiatives such as the Rabbit Rearing Project.
“This particular project that is being launched today is one such lessons that we can certainly learn from in terms of implementing it so that in the next six months and beyond at whatever stage we’re at I’m hoping that we’re at a point where we can say that on the 13th day of October we launched this project and we’re able to reap some semblance of a harvest in a few months or in a few years.”
He added that children can also get involved in rabbit rearing as a means of assisting with the provision of food to the household.
Following the Minister’s remarks a presentation was done on the Introduction Of Rabbit Production by Livestock Production Officer, Jeffrey Berry.
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