BAS head: Agrofest a ‘success’ despite incident

President of the Barbados Agricultural Society (BAS) James Paul has dubbed the staging of the three-day Agrofest agricultural exhibition as a success, despite an “incident” during one of the exhibition’s concert events that he said could have marred the event’s reputation.

An altercation broke out on Saturday night during the soca concert, the final event of Agrofest in Queen’s Park, stopping the show for several minutes.

Paul said that in the future, the behaviour of patrons and exhibitors will be even more closely scrutinised.

“We have to get a final report from the police, but in terms of behaviour we will not tolerate these things and if we find out an exhibitor was involved in the altercation, or the patrons who were involved in the altercation would not be welcomed back at the event,” he said. “We will even be putting measures in place in terms of the dress code. This is why we do not tolerate certain types of music at Agrofest and allow music to be played throughout the stalls for obvious reasons; certain types of music promote undesired behaviour so we don’t permit it.”

Police and private security personnel dealt with the situation quickly allowing the show to continue and no one was seriously injured, Paul said.

About 250 exhibitors filled the three-day exhibition from Friday to Sunday. A final tally of ticket sales was not immediately available. Paul said he was awaiting the figures.

Visiting officials from neighbouring countries were impressed by the quality of animals that were contested in the show ring, especially the indigenous Blackbelly sheep, the BAS chief said, adding that an animal nutritionist from Venezuela had taken an interest in helping farmers improve their stock and a workshop would be scheduled soon.

“I think there were some very good success stories coming from Agrofest and I think all the signs are pointing in the right direction, using the exhibition as a tool to help develop the local agriculture industry.”
(SZB)