The Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), on Wednesday, August 26, 2020, handed over an assortment of vegetable seeds to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Fisheries, Rural Transformation, Industry and Labour.
The contribution are outputs from a project funded by IICA titled, Stabilizing and enhancing agricultural production among smallholders in St. Vincent and the Grenadines affected by COVID-19 Pandemic.
Its actions are geared towards support for commercial vegetable producers and are intended to contribute to a wider national effort to support the agricultural sector, which has been adversely affected by the COVID-19 Pandemic and a prolonged drought.
Sixty farmers are expected to receive assistance from this initiative through technical support and the provision of inputs to include seeds/seedling, fertilizers and other agrochemicals.
In the upcoming weeks, it is anticipated that the Ministry of Agriculture will use the seeds received to generated seedlings for targeted farmers who will also receive supplies of other inputs according to their individual requirements.
This programme is expected to run to the end of the year with the direct contributions of the Institute valued at USD ten thousand dollars. This initiative by the IICA is part of wider regional efforts to support the countries of the Caribbean Region during the period of the pandemic.
IICA is the specialized agency for agriculture in the Inter-American system, with a mission to encourage, promote and support its 34 Member States in their efforts to achieve agricultural development and rural well-being through international technical cooperation of excellence.
