Minister Weir highlights ministry’s plans

As the island seeks to ensure its citizens have reliable access to affordable food, Minister of Agriculture and Food Security Indar Weir revealed government’s intention to put 2 000 acres of land into production for such.

In announcing her stimulus package last week, Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley said more than 750 acres will be brought back into cultivation as the island pushed greater food security and the provision of jobs in agriculture.

Speaking as a guest on the Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation’s ‘The People’s Business’ programme on Sunday night, Weir highlighted his ministry’s intention to go even further in terms of acreage, while explaining the workings of the programme, which has been rolled out to increase food production not only for crops used to growing here, but several others in high demand.

Pointing to broccoli for example, which he said accounted for $7 million in imports alone, Weir said studies were being carried to investigate what type would grow best in the Barbadian climate.

He further outlined that a task force has been set up with several farmers led by Charles Herbert in working on this initiative.

Weir also insisted the use of technology was being embraced as the way forward for this critical sector.

“We must accept that our conditions are not ideal for a number of things we import and therefore we have to use technology, whether hydroponics or aquaponics where we can utilise less water and give farmers a chance to take advantage of faster harvest periods, while at the same time giving them the ability to look at crops that they would not have been able to before,” he added.

Weir went further and said the technologies would also mean more positive results for crops already grown here, but placed under stress due to dry conditions.

“Take onion production, we had an extremely good harvest last year, but this year we are suffering badly from the drought and we are thinking about better techniques. We have to look at systems which will harvest water and be giving us the water supply we need,” he stressed. (JMB)