Dominica: Ministry of Agriculture introduces HEAL Programme

Roseau, Dominica: The Ministry of Agriculture, Dominica is working for the development of the agriculture sector and for the same Agricultural Development Pillar has been introduced. HEAL(Health, Education and Agriculture with Love) Programme introduced under the development pillar has many key interventions.

HEAL Programme, a community based initiative, is centered on targeted development within the communities of Delices, Boetica and La Plaine. Also, it is majorly focused on the part of a larger nine-pillar strategy.

Considerably, even last week, the Division of Agriculture, South East team including the Director of Agriculture, Schools Education Coordinator and other staff held a meeting with students of the Delices Primary. Such a meeting aimed at the weekly inhouse training session and practical exercises within the school farm.

The training sessions and practical exercises on the school farm would serve as the food source for the school feeding programme. It even generates income from the weekly sales of agricultural produce.

Significantly, the initiatives included under the HEAL Programme are a backyard garden initiative. Under this, all the households are encouraged to grow their own food, mainly vegetables. Another initiative namely, a ‘Tree that Feed’ initiative which states that every home should plant at least one fruit tree.

There are four other initiatives as well, which include;

• Adopting the School Feeding Initiative
• A Model School Garden Initiative
• Providing Recognition for Our Farmers Initiative (AG-Profit)
• Gifts of Love Initiative 

Adopting the School Feeding Initiative involves providing locally grown food on our children’s lunch and snack plates. Another initiative, the Model School Garden Initiative, aims to nurture future food growers by introducing various innovative methods.

Following it, the recognition initiative talks about recognizing the work of farmers over the years in community food production and agro-processing. Highlighting the Gifts of Love initiative, this is initiated by the Southeast students to the House of Hope and the Dominica Cancer Society.