NIA CHARLESTOWN NEVIS (October 07, 2020) — The Ministry of Agriculture on Nevis held its third quarter presentation at the St. Paul’s Anglican Church Hall on October 06, 2020, in keeping with its Agenda 2020, to assess the Ministry’s performance for the third quarter and to plan for the fourth quarter of 2020.

Hon. Alexis Jeffers, Minister of Agriculture, in his remarks, spoke of the importance of the reporting session from all the units within the Department of Agriculture on their achievements and challenges, and to chart the way forward for the last three months of the year.

“This event is an important one. What we are looking for is some accountability in terms of reporting, and in terms of what needs to be done to ensure that all of the persons who we expect to deliver for us at the department are doing their job.

“It’s not always an easy task to achieve your objectives, but there must be some foundation set, at least to build upon, to ensure you’re moving towards the place you want to get to.

“Coming out of this session, we’ll be able to plan adequately and put a sound pathway in place so that we can really say at the end of the year that moving forward…we’ll be able to gauge ourselves in terms of the market we’re supplying to, and making sure we are supplying the food that is needed to feed our people,” he said.

The  nine presenters were Mr. Quincy Bart of the Quarantine Unit; Mr. Elvin Sutton of the Engineering- Small Farms Equipment Pool (SFEP) Unit; Dr. Ambrose James of the Vet Services Unit; Mr. Kelso Clarke of the Livestock Unit; Mr. Gary Griffin of the Abattoir; Mrs. Shermel England of the Agro Processing Unit; Mr. Steve Reid of the Extension Services Unit; Ms. Kelva Liburd of the Marketing Unit; and Mr. Floyd Liburd, from the Forestry Unit.

Mr. Huey Sargeant, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture, explained that the purpose of the forum was to give agriculture stakeholders some insight into the ministry’s achievements of its Agenda 2020 programme.

He explained that Agenda 2020 had been implemented for the past three years. However, this year a reporting segment was added after the ministry engaged the services of Mr. Augustine Merchant to help with the necessary corrective action. Mr. Merchant is a revered former Director of Agriculture who later become the Coordinator of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) in St. Kitts and Nevis.

In addition to stakeholders on Nevis, the session also saw in attendance officials from the Ministry of Agriculture in St. Kitts and representatives from the Taiwanese Technical Mission to St. Kitts and Nevis.