NIA CHARLESTOWN NEVIS (December 02, 2022) — Hon. Samal Duggins, Federal Minister of Agriculture met with Hon. Alexis Jeffers, Minister of Agriculture on Nevis on December 01, 2022, for discussions on the way forward for agriculture in St. Kitts and Nevis.

Following the meeting which Mr. Jeffers described as the first of many, he gave some insight into their discussions.

“The discussions this morning was centred on some of the possibilities that certainly exist in agriculture in the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis. We are doing some exciting things here and of course Minister Duggins has indicated he has quite a number of exciting things to be done in St. Kitts to transform agriculture in the federation…

“We have seen what is possible and we know we can certainly forge ahead together as a federation to make sure that we can bring about food security, sustainability the resilience that we work towards here in the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis. So the sky’s the limit and there are endless possibilities,” he said.

Minister Jeffers noted that together they are capable of capitalising on existing opportunities in agriculture for the benefit of the people of St. Kitts and Nevis.

“Agriculture has tremendous potential, and instead of just talking about it as a team, I’m sure, we can certainly show and demonstrate those potentials through the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis because they are looking towards us to produce in these difficult times when food is scarce.

“Opportunities are there, though, to capitalise on these difficult and challenging circumstances by doing more here in the federation, in terms of planting more, growing more and ensure that we are feeding our people,” he said.

Mr. Jeffers thanked his counterpart for his visit.

“I want to thank you, Minister, and I want you to get a tour of the island of Nevis and see what we are doing. I will reciprocate the visit…I’ll come down and have a tour of St. Kitts, and we can look at other areas whereby we can partner and make sure that we are doing the right thing in agriculture,” he said.

In responding, Minister Duggins described the meeting as an excellent one, and thanked the Nevis Agriculture Minister for his support.

“We had excellent discussions on the future of food security and nutrition security for the federation. It is our belief that St. Kitts and Nevis has and will always remain one federation as we punch our way through the global strata.

“We look at the regional sphere and we recognise that we are small but ‘tallawah’ and we have an agenda, to become the food Mecca of the Eastern Caribbean, and I think together we can create a phenomenal effort to push the food and nutrition security agenda forward. So I thank you for your support in this, and I look forward to the magic and the wonderful works that we will create together,” he said.