{"id":5422,"date":"2023-02-22T19:29:20","date_gmt":"2023-02-22T19:29:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/agriculture.gov.ag\/?p=5422"},"modified":"2023-02-22T19:29:20","modified_gmt":"2023-02-22T19:29:20","slug":"minister-greene-meeting-with-food-producers-in-the-southcentral-district","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agriculture.gov.ag\/index.php\/2023\/02\/22\/minister-greene-meeting-with-food-producers-in-the-southcentral-district\/","title":{"rendered":"Minister Greene meeting with Food Producers in the Southcentral District\u00a0 \u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Despite the adverse weather conditions on Tuesday 21<\/span>st<\/span> the Ministry of Agriculture was very pleased with the turnout.\u00a0 Food producers from South Central attended in their numbers at the Anti-Praedial Larceny Consultation (APLC) held at the All Saints Secondary School.\u00a0 At least thirty (30) farmers from areas such as Burks, Ras Freeman and Jonas came to also interact with Minister E.P. Chet Greene.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Minister Greene in his brief opening remarks stated that he had some awareness of the sector and admitted to knowing that it had suffered for a long while.\u00a0 Moreover, the minister assured the food producers that even though he recently got appointed to the ministry, he might not readily have all the answers, neither was he an expert but he wasn\u2019t a novice since his father was a farmer and basically had some farming experience.\u00a0 Additionally, he mentioned that the team of experts at the ministry would guide and contribute to\u00a0moving the sector to the next level. \u201cI am sure you are aware that I was quite recently appointed. I want to hear from you\u00a0what difficulties you are experiencing and to see how the ministry can be of assistance.\u00a0 We are aware of the challenges the sector had over the years\u201d, said Minister Greene.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

During the exchange with the Minister, the farmers unanimously pointed out that the two main difficulties were insufficient water and impassable roads\/easy access to their farms.\u00a0 In his response, Minister Greene assured them that this was a priority, and the government has invested in the purchase of a Reverse Osmosis (R O) plant which should be island soon. The minister also informed them that road works have commenced. It was confirmed that works in the Burks area will commence soon, and solar lights will be installed\u00a0from next week.\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cFarmers need to be responsible and exercise discretion while\u00a0using\u00a0these access roads, i.e. during and after a very heavy downpour, the use of heavy machinery should be minimized until surrounding areas are dried up\u201d, added Minister Greene.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Some farmers felt that communication between the extension officers and them was an issue.\u00a0 The Minister announced his commitment and willingness to do his part in the quest pertaining to \u201c<\/span>Food Security\u201d. There is an urgent need to produce more food especially since the merchants are concerned about the increased importation cost. Further, he<\/span><\/b>\u00a0advised that if this unavailability or lack of communication continued, please inform the Chief or Senior Extension Officers or himself.\u00a0 He once again gave the mass his personal contact number.\u00a0 Additionally, they were told that once on the island it was\u00a0his intention to visit farms every Friday and that he was also open to invitations.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

According to the minister, other matters\u00a0that were being investigated included excessive use of chemicals, soil quality, and soil conditions. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Before closing, the Minister implored the food producers to operate their livelihoods as businesses.\u00a0 He informed them that the government and the ministry were looking into contractual leases for longer periods than what is offered now, and the renewal of existing leases would be based on performance, productivity.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>\u00a0 \"\"<\/a>\u00a0 \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Despite the adverse weather conditions on Tuesday 21st the Ministry of Agriculture was very pleased with the turnout.\u00a0 Food producers from South Central attended in their numbers at the Anti-Praedial […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-notices"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/agriculture.gov.ag\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5422","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=5422"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/agriculture.gov.ag\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5422\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5440,"href":"https:\/\/agriculture.gov.ag\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5422\/revisions\/5440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/agriculture.gov.ag\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agriculture.gov.ag\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agriculture.gov.ag\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}