600 households to get backyard farming boost

Six hundred households will benefit from a new community farming initiative from next month aimed at helping families grow their own food and strengthening Barbados’ food security, Minister of Agriculture Dr Shantal Munro-Knight announced on Friday.

Minister of Agriculture Dr Shantal Munro-Knight. (Photo credit: Lauryn Escamilla / Barbados TODAY)

The initiative, which will be rolled out through the One Family Programme, will begin with three demonstration farms before expanding to households and communities across the island.

She said: “Those demonstration farms will allow communities to be able to innovate around agriculture themselves because I believe that Barbadians…  given the space and opportunity, can fall in love with agriculture again, but also as well use their skills and talents.”

One of the demonstration farms will showcase modern agricultural technology to expose communities and young people to new farming methods, she said.

“In one of those demonstration farms, we will put in every technological area device around agriculture, again to expose our communities and young people. So it does not just become something that the ministry does, but our communities.”

Through the One Family Programme, participating households will receive the resources needed to establish backyard farming projects, including seedlings, grow bags, grow boxes, chicken coops and technical support.

“We will also, in various communities starting with the One Family Programme, provide opportunities for households through giving them all of the implements that they need, from seedlings to grow bags to grow boxes that the kids have done here as well. If they want chickens, they will get chickens and chicken coops, and whatever they need, including, we will put alongside that we’ll help them to be able to answer and respond to some of those questions.”

Speaking at the closing ceremony for the Ministry of Agriculture’s Hearts and Minds summer camp, Dr Munro-Knight said the programme is expected to directly empower 600 households during its first year “to be able to grow their own food. Not only just what we see here, herbs, but sweet potato, chicken, fish, whatever they want within their own households. That is hearts and minds. That is what we are doing”.

The initiative forms part of the ministry’s broader Hearts and Minds strategy to re-engage Barbadians and encourage greater participation in farming, particularly among young people.

Almost 200 students from the Barbados Community College, the Samuel Jackman Prescod Institute of Technology and the University of the West Indies are currently participating in internships across the Ministry of Agriculture.

Dr Munro-Knight said: “That was important again to dispel the myth that agriculture is only just about farming. Within agriculture, we have veterinary services, we have animal nutrition as well. We have tissue culture, we have soil, we have plant protection as well, a number of different elements that are important to the enabling environment for the food system to work.”

The minister also announced overseas training opportunities, including approximately five scholarships to Europe to expose young people to agribusiness, as well as additional scholarships to Canada and Florida.

“We have scholarships for approximately five young persons to travel to Europe again to be exposed to the business end of agriculture, agribusiness as well. We also have some scholarships to take the deficit of young people to Canada and also as well to Florida.”

Dr Munro-Knight said investing in young people was essential to Barbados’ long-term agricultural development:

“Why are we doing this? Why is this important? Why are we running after young people and this exposure? One, agriculture is critical for our national development and if we say that, then we need to then be able to invest in the future of that national development and two, again, that notion of how we plant seeds. Through young people because we are intending to have a ripple impact.”

Meetings with farmers across the island would begin shortly to discuss the ministry’s plans and hear the challenges they face, she announced.

“There is a commitment within the Ministry of Agriculture, a deep and fundamental commitment within this ministry to be able to transform agriculture for Barbados, to be able to deliver for Barbados the scale of agriculture that is necessary.”

(LG)