St. Lucia Supports Re-election of FAO Director General

Contact: John Emmanuel

November 30, 1999 - Greater collaboration between St. Lucia and the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) in coming years is expected to bear tremendous fruit for the island's agriculture sector. So says Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture Dr. James Fletcher, who returned home on the weekend after attending the 30th Conference of the FAO in Rome.

According to Dr. Fletcher St. Lucia vigorously supported the re-election of the FAO Director General Dr. Jacques Diouf "because he has demonstrated from our point of view an acute sensitivity for the issues pertaining to small island states. He has been very supportive of our initiatives and we have been able to secure much assistance under his stewardship. We are also pleased with strides made by Dr. Diouf at restructuring the Food and Agricultural Organization making it well placed to lead global agriculture into the 21st Century."

St. Lucia he says intends to position itself to take full advantage of the second term of the Director General. Already Dr. Fletcher says informal talks have been held with Dr. Diouf exploring further areas of collaboration. The FAO is assisting St. Lucia in efforts at eradicating the Ablyoma tick and has approved a significant project aimed at streamlining and strengthening extension service delivery in St. Lucia. FAO assistance will also come to the St. Lucia Egg Producers Cooperative in providing infrastructure for better egg distribution.

The FAO is also expected to assist the Ministry of Agriculture in the area of project cycle management. "It is a deficiency that we recognize within this ministry, there is simple too long a period between the identification of needs and conceptualization of projects, then the writing up of projects proposals and after these projects have been approved their implementation. It's a public service wide problem but it's especially acute in the Ministry given our aggressive capital programme" Fletcher said.

St. Lucia has three other projects before the Food and Agricultural Organization awaiting funding.

Links

Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Fisheries & the Environment

Food and Agriculture Organization

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