Saint Lucia Bolsters Pig Production To Strengthen Food Security

Amidst the impacts of Hurricane Beryl on the island, some 25 pig farmers and technicians participated in the first series of a training programme on pig reproduction and breeding provided by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Food Security and Rural Development. Delivered under a project of FAO’s Technical Cooperation Programme on promoting competitive import substitution and export agricultural value chains in St. Lucia, the training programme is one of the activities from the country’s 2023-2028 Pork Value Chain Upgrading Strategy that was developed by the pig industry’s public and private stakeholders, the National Pork Value Chain Team along with FAO’s Value Chain Development team. The training sought to respond to the first strategic area from the plan on enhancing productivity and efficiency through commercial pig farming, utilizing modern management practices and technologies. The reproduction and breeding trainings were delivered in the field and as classroom sessions and followed a training-of-trainers approach. The trainings were designed to build the knowledge and capacity of the pig farmers and technicians to increase farm-level productivity whilst minimizing production costs. Whereas three days of training were cancelled due to Hurricane Beryl, farmers and technicians...