(MOA Basseterre, St. Kitts, 20 June 2024): Veteran Crop Farmer Andy Caines of Conaree is proudly embarking on a new journey of growing watermelons for the first time in his four-decade-long farming livelihood. He said after decades of planting cassava, pigeon peas, okra and pumpkin, his decision to grow watermelons was largely influenced by the Department of Agriculture’s ongoing Crop Production initiative, which forms part of the St.
Kitts Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Marine Resources’ 25 by 25 Agenda. This ambitious program aims to reduce the nation’s food import bill by 25% by the year 2025, encouraging local farmers to explore and cultivate new crops by using more climate resilient and sustainable methods of farming to boost crop production on the island.
In a recent interview with the Ministry’s Media and Communication Unit, Caines revealed that as part of this initiative, the Department provided him with 1200 high-quality watermelon seedlings, drip irrigation tools and plastic mulch commonly known as ground cover to ensure he had the resources needed to succeed in this new endeavour. This was also his first time using this material on his farm.
He stated, “This is the first time I’m using the matting and the first-time planting watermelon because I agreed to participate in the 25 by 25 program so I need to plant watermelon, so I will continue to plant watermelon. The benefit of the ground cover is that you use less water, you have no weeding and it’s not so much of work because before I used it there or so I had threeor four- [days] weeding before I start to harvest.” Nevis Island Administration that I’m privileged to lead but we cannot talk about sustainability just in terms of renewable energy just in terms of the economy or in terms of the environment we must also talk about people and population our human capital if we are to create the sustainable Island State that we’ve been talking about and I’m hopeful that members of the press and public would agree with me that 51,000 people is far too few to develop St.
Kitts and Nevis in a sensible way.” He added: “When we take out from that 51,320 those who are elderly those who are suffering from some type of disability, those who are young; – LOCAL NEWS –
very young children, we realize that our productive pool is incredibly small and put bluntly and shortly, we need people in St. Kitts and Nevis now. Is it that we will be inviting our people to have more children and even if we invited them, would they be minded to do so?
I believe that societies around the world have shown that as societies have become more affluent they have had fewer children.” Brantley recalled a conversation he had with some females of childbearing age whilst indicating that he explored the idea of government incentivizing childbirth through tax or other benefits but acknowledged the resistance from those women. “No amount of money could encourage them to have any more children,” he reported from his discussions.
Drawing comparisons with other countries facing similar issues, Brantley mentioned controlled immigration as a possible solution. “… Canada, Singapore, Hong Kong, countries around the world… the United Arab Emirates are trying to solve that problem through controlled immigration by allowing persons to come into the country and to develop the country,” he noted. Front Page Image used for illustration purposes only shows the underside of the foot of a newborn baby showing black ink (Source: fmchealth.org) Caines who also holds a Bachelor’s degree in Agriculture added that this initiative provided him with the opportunity to cultivate nearly ten thousand pounds of watermelons.
As Crop Farmer Andy Caines embarks on this new chapter, his success symbolizes the potential for growth and transformation within the agricultural sector while also emphasizing how the 25 by 25 Agenda initiative propels food producers closer to achieving the government’s goal of a more sustainable and self-reliant food system in St. Kitts and Nevis. 7
