Minister Samal Duggins participates in Caribbean Week of Agriculture 2023

Samal Duggins, Minister of Agriculture in the Federal Cabinet of St Kitts and Nevis, actively participated in the Caribbean Week of Agriculture,2023 conference held in the Bahamas on 18th October 2023.

 While sharing his experience, he said that this will play a vital role in developing agricultural production in the country.

The celebration of Caribbean Week of Agriculture 2023 started on 10th October with the theme of Accelerating Vision 25 by 2025 which is celebrated with the motive of reducing imports of food by 25% by the year 2025.

The event brings together the experts from the public and private sectors, the agricultural producers and the representatives of international agencies for the four days of deliberations. It aims to enhance agriculture’s role in fostering economic development in the Caribbean countries.

Sharing his views on the edition of InFocus, the Minister, Samal Duggins, stated that the most important learning from the conference was adapting to modern and innovative technologies in agriculture practices.

“We have to embrace technology, even in protected agriculture, so that they can enhance agricultural production using machinery. We also discussed water conservation, from the use of identifying where we have proper resources of water, mapping our geographical landscape, and utilizing these channels and storing water with the help of modern technologies to ensure that they are doing things in the best possible manner,” added the Minister, Samal Duggins.

The conference also revolved around the matters of the future of the fishing sector in the region as most of the nations are facing various threats which include overfishing, frequent climate change, which causes an influx of sargassum and changes in the temperature of the water.

Minister Duggins and the other members present at the conference were given a tour of farms in the Bahamas to highlight the usage of technology and their role in promoting agricultural production.

Minister Duggins also remarked, they have been embracing technology significantly, and he was impressed with some of the indoor farming operations, and he noticed that St Kitts and Nevis is heading in that direction. He has also observed some of the best practices which can be shared with their farmers to ensure optimum agricultural production.

The Caribbean Week of Agriculture 2023 organised by Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture probed to be a significant event in the Caribbean region.