Nevis farmers

The Department of Agriculture on Nevis held a morning workshop on Thursday, May 20, in their conference room at Prospect Estate to enlighten farmers about the ways in which they can keep pests from plaguing their crops.

Mr. Eric Evelyn, Communications Officer for the Department of Agriculture, chaired the event.

The Federation's Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI) representative, Ms. Pathleen Titus, focused on two pests in her comments, the Giant African snail, and the Caribbean fruit fly.

She also informed about the affiliation between the Florida Association for Volunteer Action in the Caribbean and the Americas (FAVACA), and CARDI, which allowed Nevisian Dr. Oscar E. Liburd and his wife Dr. Angeleah Browdy, both from the University of Florida, to come to Nevis and facilitate the workshop. FAVACA is a private, non-profit organization created in 1982 by former Governor of Florida and United States Senator, Daniel Robert “Bob” Graham.

Dr. Liburd told the audience that he works with growers all over Florida and makes a habit of extending research information from the university's laboratory to them.

“If you're a grower and have a pest problem, and you can explain to me exactly what the problem is, I would be very happy to talk to you and suggest to you ways to solve the problem,” he said.

After recently facilitating the same workshop in St. Kitts, Dr. Liburd decided to do so on the island of his birth, where many of the farmers knew him. He encouraged attendees to be “very informal” and to ask questions.

Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture, Dr. Kelvin Daly, informed that the event was the second series of workshops for farmers, and made some suggestions, such as the possible use of netting for cabbage as opposed to chemicals for protection against butterflies.

“The harshness of the chemicals we have been using so far are doing more harm than good,” he said.

Dr. Daly acknowledged the presence of a representative from Marketing Arm International, the company that supplies the Department of Agriculture with the ‘eco-friendly' chemicals used in Charlestown.

Local farmers who attended the ceremony included Mrs. Elmena Webbe-Hanley, Mrs. Althea Parris, Mr. Marcel Hanley, Mr. Dexter Bowrin, and Mr. Michael Dalton.