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Fond Assau Farmers Seek Solutions To Agriculture
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Fond Assau Farmers Seek Solutions To Agriculture
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Contact:
Rose Marie
Harris
Tuesday,
July 10,
2001 --
Banana farmers in the Fond Assau community are pioneering a new approach towards
finding solutions to problems affecting bananas in particular and agriculture in
general. The farmers convened a consultation on Monday, July 9, 2001 and invited representatives of the banana companies and officials of the Ministry of Agriculture to join them in a frank, open discussion of the relevant issues. Among them, leaf spot disease, prices for produce, and agricultural diversification. Parliamentary Representative for Castries North West Babonneau, Hon. Michael Gaspard, said the event arose from numerous complaints by the farmers. In remarks, he said there was a need to take the business of agriculture more seriously. “When it comes to agriculture, we have not yet understood how to control the business of the banana in a very serious way. Whether it be dasheen you are planting or chicken you are rearing, it is important to begin to treat the business of agriculture as something where we can make money for our pockets. It’s a question of survival ….. We need to change our methods and adopt new approaches,” Gaspard said. Agriculture Minister, Hon. Cassius Elias, cited a need for a diversification of agricultural production to meet the changing needs of the domestic consumer and the export market. “No matter what I do, farmers do not want to plant anything in St Lucia apart from bananas. It is not the market that St Lucia does not have, rather the farmers do not want to plant the goods that have a market,” he told the farmers. He added “The farmers want to plant what they want, when they want, and how they want. They then take it down to the Marketing Board and expect the Board to buy the goods and when the Board says they cannot buy, then farmers get upset.” At the end of the meeting, Gaspard said he was heartened by the turn out and the high level of the discussion. He expressed optimism that the banana industry in St Lucia can be sustained if the “Fond Assau Approach” is adopted by other farming communities. |
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