{"id":16387,"date":"2025-12-10T12:55:31","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T12:55:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/agriculture.gov.ag\/?p=16387"},"modified":"2025-12-10T12:55:31","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T12:55:31","slug":"fao-and-moa-ground-level-farm-assessments-in-antigua-and-barbuda-by-brent-simon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agriculture.gov.ag\/index.php\/2025\/12\/10\/fao-and-moa-ground-level-farm-assessments-in-antigua-and-barbuda-by-brent-simon\/","title":{"rendered":"FAO and MOA\u00a0Ground-Level Farm Assessments in Antigua and Barbuda\u00a0by Brent Simon"},"content":{"rendered":"

The FAO Mission is spending this week on the ground across Antigua and Barbuda, visiting farms, interacting with farmers, and testing the real-world conditions behind the country\u2019s agriculture sector. FAO Agri-Business Finance Specialist Dr. Omardath Maharaj, is working closely with Mr. Brent Georges\/MOA Project Coordinator\/FAO Focal Point in Antigua and Barbuda, as well as\u00a0Mr. Adrian Bowen\/MOA Extension officer, gathering data and\u00a0assess the progress of project TCP\/ANT\/4001 (D): Sustainable Water Management and Access for Better Production in Antigua and Barbuda. \u00a0<\/b><\/strong><\/p>\n

Dr. Maharaj says the most consistent complaint on every farm is the \u201crelatively high cost and unreliable access to water and energy.\u201d Farmers are trying to survive inside an increasingly expensive operating environment, yet many have still been investing in harvesting and storage systems to stay afloat. According to him, these constraints directly limit production consistency and profitability \u2014 two ingredients protected agriculture depends on. Their business models, now in development, aim to plug those gaps with climate-smart, financially viable solutions.<\/p>\n

But the field visits were not just confirming old data; they\u2019re expanding the story.<\/p>\n

\u201cField reality both confirms and deepens our understanding,\u201d Maharaj explains. The mission is verifying long-known challenges like water scarcity but also picking up nuances that data sets don\u2019t capture \u2014 start-up struggles, planting material costs, and how willing (or hesitant) farmers are to invest. These details are critical to building business cases that actually reflect Caribbean farmers\u2019 realities instead of dropping cookie-cutter templates from abroad.<\/p>\n

The mission is also focused on what can be done right now, not five years down the road.\u00a0\u00a0Dr. Maharaj pointed to a set of immediate gains: tighter irrigation scheduling, low-cost rainwater harvesting upgrades, and simple monitoring tools that cut waste and decrease monthly costs. On the marketing side, he sees tremendous potential in value-added products \u2014 salad mixes, fresh produce bundles, and other creative offerings that reposition farmers\u2019 crops for stronger income. Despite the challenges, Maharaj says the farms they visited are already positioned to benefit from protected-agriculture business models. Many growers have the structures, the initiative, and the drive \u2014 they just need more efficient systems and better market coordination. \u201cWith the right water-energy efficiencies and linkages, these farms can unlock their full potential,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n

The Ministry of Agriculture and its\u00a0Extension Division also appear ready to push the next stage of development. Maharaj describes the team \u2014 led by Permanent Secretary Walter Christopher and supported by Mr. Ika Fergus\/Senior Extension Officer and FAO National Correspondent \u2014 as having strong foundational capacity and local knowledge. The upcoming recommendations will reinforce their need for specialized agribusiness tools so they can guide farmers through the investment and implementation steps ahead.<\/p>\n

The mission continued\u00a0its assessments throughout\u00a0the week, shaping five business-case models that may influence the next wave of agricultural modernization in Antigua and Barbuda. If the solutions match the realities seen on the ground, the country\u2019s protected-agriculture sector could be heading for a smarter, more resilient phase\u00a0and\u00a0one where farmers\u00a0would not be\u00a0fighting\u00a0with\u00a0basic utilities just to stay in business.<\/p>\n

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The FAO Mission is spending this week on the ground across Antigua and Barbuda, visiting farms, interacting with farmers, and testing the real-world conditions behind the country\u2019s agriculture sector. FAO […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fao","category-news-notices"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/agriculture.gov.ag\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/agriculture.gov.ag\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/agriculture.gov.ag\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agriculture.gov.ag\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agriculture.gov.ag\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16387"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/agriculture.gov.ag\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16387\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16396,"href":"https:\/\/agriculture.gov.ag\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16387\/revisions\/16396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/agriculture.gov.ag\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agriculture.gov.ag\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agriculture.gov.ag\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}