Partnership lauded

Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Indar Weir, highlighting the right of every Barbadian to safe and nutritious food, says his ministry is strengthening linkages with existing partners and building new ones, to ensure that right is fulfilled.

He gave that assurance as the ministry joined with the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) to make presentations of produce to the Barbados Alliance to End Homelessness, the Street Lamp Ministries and the Child Care Board, to commemorate World Food Day which was celebrated yesterday.

“This initiative, however, is just one of the many projects in which my Ministry and FAO are collaborating. Therefore, I want to take this opportunity to extend gratitude to the FAO for partnering with the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security in this expression of what is arguably humanity’s most genuine expression of benevolence – the act of giving to those who are less fortunate,” he said.

His comments came as he said that the Ministry sees the sharing of produce and planting material with the public, including schools, churches, non-governmental organisations and individuals, as being crucial to its mandate to promote interest in agriculture and to advance food and nutrition security in this country. In addition, Minister Weir said that the ministry has also been providing technical assistance through its extension services to those who require it.

Turning his attention to World Food Day, he referred to Sustainable Development Goal number 2 which underscores the need to end hunger, attain food security, improve nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture by 2030. With that in mind, he suggested that the theme for World Food Day 2021 "Our actions are our future - Better production, better nutrition, a better environment and a better life", is timely, contending that more than ever there is a need to work together for the survival of present and future generations.

“Our current global battle against the dreaded COVID-19 virus, the La Soufrière Volcano eruption, a freak storm and the passage of Hurricane Elsa, have all through their disruption of our lives, forced a close examination of the complexity of the agri-food systems,” he said.

The agriculture and food security minister went on to say that questions regarding how to increase food security in an environment with limited availability of water are also engaging the attention of the Ministry. In that vein, he said his Ministry, along with the Barbados Agricultural and Marketing Corporation is embarking on a Water Augmentation Programme which will provide irrigation water supply to farmers in order to achieve the goal of increased agricultural production.

Adding to his comments, Stephen Alleyne, National Programme Consultant at the FAO said access to food is critical, adding that the FAO was pleased to share in the initiative to assist the organisations in their work.

“We want to also highlight the fact that we think that this is one of the ways in which we can really impact our communities, we can impact the lives of persons... At this time, we'd like to take the opportunity as well to realise the efforts of these charitable organisations Street Lamp Ministries, Barbados Alliance to End Homelessness and then finally, the Child Care Board for all of their efforts - providing shelter and meals to those who otherwise would be unable to provide for themselves, who are really vulnerable among us,” he said.