Ministers of Agriculture from the OECS meet in Dominica today for the 6th Annual Agriculture Ministers meeting at the State House Conference center.
Agriculture Minister, Fidel Grant who spoke on State-Owned Radio DBS said, the meeting is seeking to prioritize the OECS countries in terms of, “what it is that we should be doing, what it is that the OECS as an organization should be supporting for the various countries within the organization.”
“We will also be looking to see how we can develop the blue economy across the region,” he said.
Grant indicated that there are several ongoing projects which support the blue economy.
“What we are hoping to do is see how we can consolidate that,” he noted.
Furthermore, Grant said that each country has its priority, “but what we want is as an OECS body to have on the priority areas that the OECS can help us by providing support to us.”
He went on to state that agriculture has always been a priority for the Government of Dominica, but worldwide the sector has been facing several challenges.
“We hope to see improvement in terms of reduction in food prices because this is a concern, and it’s costing the household and single mothers a lot of money and that is a concern for the government and the OECS,” Grant remarked. “We are hoping to see what measures can be put in place to increase or ramp up production so that the cost to the households can be reduced.”
Meantime, Grant said he will be taking over chairmanship at a difficult time for agriculture.
“Specifically we know that the rising cost of fuel, the rising cost of feed causes significant food shortages around the world,” he remarked.
He said, however, “We don’t have that problem in Dominica as the government continues to make funds available to the agriculture ministry so that we [can] develop the sector and ensure that the country has food.”
Grant stated that Dominica does not have a food insecurity problem.
Brother why don’t you shut up your damn mouth it was hurricane DLP administration that destroyed the agricultural sector sector, remember “if not passport then what” dummies.