NIA CHARLESTOWN NEVIS (August 25, 2022) — Two of the 20 participants who attended the historic Agri-preneur Conference hosted by the Ministry of Health and Gender Affairs in Nevis in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture are registering their satisfaction with the event and are calling on the hosts to stage more of the same.

During a field trip to A1 Farms Nevis at Gingerland, on August 25, the final day of the conference, Corissa Griffin of Nevis and Eurta Chiverton of St. Kitts told the Department of Information of their experience during the three-day conference and what the presentations meant to them.

“It was very informative where we learnt about financial planning; we learnt about the different soil textures; we learnt about different crops and stuff that we can do, specifically the different aspects of agri-pereneur that we can go into.

“There’s the farming; there’s livestock; there’s also agro processing which sparked my interest. That’s the reason why I’m here, and we’ve learnt a number of stuff that we can put into practice, and going forward I think that this conference should be something that the department can look into doing on a more frequent basis because as we can see, there’s a number of girls and women interested in this field,” she said.

Ms. Chiverton who is a farmer expressed similar sentiments as her fellow participant, and spoke of her experience.

“I was very happy to be on the workshop this week. It was very intuitive and I learnt a lot. The tour was the most beneficial part for me because I was able to witness from another experienced farmer some of the progress that he would have made, especially in terms of greenhouse farming because that is what I’m particularly interested in.

“I am from St. Kitts. Even though this workshop is in Nevis I decided to come on over because I was very interested in learning what was being imparted here. I am very happy to be at the A1 Farms today because I would have learnt a lot about greenhouse farming and I hope to implement some of those things I would have learnt back home in my farm that I’m trying to build up.

“I am farming now for about one year and I am in the process of setting up my own greenhouses. I have one greenhouse that is semi established…The frame is up and I now have to install the shade cloth and the covering, and I’m very happy that I came here at this stage because Mr. [Mc Levon] Tross would have given me some important tips in terms of some of the do’s and the don’ts in terms of setting up my final structure and setting up my final layout for the house. So I’m very happy to be here I look forward to other workshops,” she said.

The St. Kitts farmer says she would like to see more females venture into farming.

“I am hoping that from this, others will get involved in farming in St. Kitts because it is very important that we become more sustainable when it comes to our own food security, and yes, a lot of us say grow local and eat local but that is so important for us and for our economy,” Ms. Chiverton concluded.