Farm Worker Programme Gets A Boost

Over 100 farm workers hailing from various districts throughout Saint Lucia have been selected to conduct farm work on various farms, over the next six (6) months. This initiative is being spearheaded by the Unleashing the Blue Economy of the Caribbean (UBEC) Project, in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Food Security and Rural Development, and is aimed at increasing local food production and assisting with the overall continued recovery of the agricultural sector post COVID-19. The main objective of this activity is to provide direct assistance to farmers in the form of manual labour, in an effort to support increased quality production. It is envisaged that the project’s recently concluded fertilizer distribution activity, which supplied 39,000 bags of fertilizer to farmers throughout Saint Lucia would result in bigger harvests for farmers. Therefore, the increased assistance through manual labour supplied by the selected farm workers would be tremendously warranted and welcomed. Over the past few weeks, the Ministry of Agriculture vetted several applications from individuals across the island, who had indicated their interest in the farm worker programme. Many of the applicants had previously participated in similar programmes and as such are already equipped with the farming skills which...