Thousands of patrons welcome the return of agriculture expo

Whether you wanted to see the cows, bulls and sheep, ride a horse, climb a rock wall or eat some delicious food and treats, Agrofest was the place to be over the weekend.

In fact, thousands were part of the do when after a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, they returned to Queen’s Park to take in the island’s premier agricultural festival. This year’s Agrofest was scaled down to two days, Saturday and Sunday, as opposed to the usually three days, nonetheless patrons seemingly had a great time with many speaking highly of the family atmosphere, booths, activities and fun.

Among those in attendance was Antonia Rock, who was a part of a group of friends that partook in the events. She told Barbados TODAY she had a wonderful time and was able to get cane juice and her friends peace lilies and an array of other plants.

“I wasn’t expecting such a large crowd honestly. I’m glad to see the people were excited to be back out and enjoying everything. But I was expecting more plants, . . . fruit trees and more of what I accustom seeing but I didn’t see a lot. I guess because I didn’t walk around much because I didn’t really want to get too thick in the crowd but it was well attended and I had a good time,” she said.

Echoing similar comments, another attendee who went only by the name Sharon, expressed her delight about the return of Agrofest but contended that the stalls were too scattered and said she would have preferred them more centralised.

“I walked to the top of there and realised it was a whole other world going on up there so it would be good if they could make it a little more central. I’m glad it returned this year because I do enjoy it. I bought some provisions and herbs and enjoyed seeing the animals, especially the rabbits. I saw a red rabbit which was nice and unusual because I’ve never seen a red rabbit unless they coloured it,” Sharon laughed.

Sixteen-year-old Barry Bishop is desirous of starting his own fish business and is interested in breeding fish and was thankful for the return of Agrofest so he could purchase some fighters. He said: “It was actually good because I haven’t been to Agrofest in a few years so I was excited for I to come back. There is good stuff to buy and see. For sure I can’t wait until next year.”

Chief executive officer of the Barbados Agricultural Society (BAS) James Paul called the event a success during an interview with Barbados TODAY on Sunday evening. Although he was unable to give statistics in relation to the number of visitors over the two days, he estimated that Saturday’s turnout was nearly on par with pre-COVID numbers and the Sunday attendance was “pretty good”.

Paul also disclosed that his association was already planning for 2023 and he revealed that several changes are expected. These included: the use of Weymouth B, which was unusable this year as a result of ongoing construction in that area; the return of the schools’ day, normally held on the Friday and possibly the introduction of a fourth day.

“Friday will be back and one of the things we may have to look to and it was suggested, is that in terms of the school children we need to have an extra day for them or separation of the primary and secondary schools. That is something of course we will have to look at. . .   

“If it can be facilitated, we will, because there is a feeling that when we mix primary with secondary it seems as if the primary don’t get as much out of it because the secondary schools tend to dominate. We have to look at it because when we started Agrofest. . . it [was] a way of reaching out to our younger people because when we can get our young people excited about agriculture that is where it all begins,” the agricultural head said.

In terms of the exhibits themselves, some changes are also expected next year with the hope of them leading to improvements.

“We also have some other ideas in terms of the fruits and vegetable sector, we want to widen that. So that is another opportunity and you would see as we go into next year. The truth is, this is a local exhibition, we want to highlight our local agricultural products to show what agricultural is doing to contribute to the economy,” Paul added. (KC)