By: Precious Mills
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts (Friday 4th May 2018)-At a ceremony held on Thursday 26th April at the St.Johnston’s Community Centre to mark to 25th Anniversary of the Department of Agriculture’s Open Day event, a former top official, Dr. Jerome Thomas, highlighted the journey of the annual affair in his presentation dubbed ‘Synopsis: The Genesis and Growth of Open Day’.
Dr. Thomas informed that during the final quarter of 1993, he acted as Director of Agriculture until appointed to position on 1st April 1994.
“During 1993, the Department of Agriculture had a forestry division which had responsibility for the plant propagation unit. The focus of the unit was the propagation of the fruit trees and ornamental plants to the public. Fruit trees and ornamental plants were always in high demand but invariably the unit was unable to supply. During 1993, special emphasis was placed on increasing the propagation of fruit trees and a (marked).increase in the number of plants for sale was realised at the beginning of 1994,” he shared.
He said the Department was pleased with the output –input of the plant propagation unit.
He went on to say that he had discussion with the then Forestry Officer Henry Mills on how best the public could be informed about the increase availability of fruit trees and ornamental plants from the Department of Agriculture
According to him: “The initial thinking was that we would organise an exhibition for the plant propagation unit and invite the general public to view and purchase plants. During discussion with the forestry officer, I suggested to him that scope of those exhibitions would only be limited by the extent of our imagination.”
As understood, following such discussions, it was agreed to expand the scope of the exhibition to other departments of agriculture and the first open day was held on the grounds of the Department at La Guerite during 1994.
Dr. Thomas said it important to note that having conceptualised the idea of an open day, the proposal was discussed with his then colleague Director of Agriculture of Nevis Augustine Merchant who praised the idea and implemented the idea as well in Nevis during the same year.
“Together we were able in unity to launch the annual Open Day,” he noted.
The objective of the first open day was to showcase to the general public, the achievements in the agriculture sector as well as its stakeholders.
As gathered, the first open day was held at the grounds of the Department of Agriculture and the focus mainly was on crop-related activities, propagation plant unit, crop research unit, livestock as well as exhibits by farmers among other areas.
Dr. Thomas recalled preparation for the first open day, the team was on the site the night before up to midnight and returned 6am the following day to complete preparations for a 9am start.
He revealed that he first open day and many years after was held for one day only despite many requests for a second day.
“The first open day was successful and was well attended by the general public and in particular from the schools. All the trees in the plant propagation unit was sold in a few hours. It is important to note that for several years, fruit trees were always sold out and eventually we moved to selling the trees after open day because what happen is that the plant propagation space became empty because of strong demands for the fruit trees.”
Notably, during first few years, exhibits were mainly held in rooms adjoining the plant propagation unit and an area known as ‘The Shed’ but according to Dr. Thomas, use of the ground expanded on an annual basis.
Additionally, he said high level of participation was also observed by farmers and persons selling ornamental plants whilst pointing out that during the first five years, the scope of the Open Day widened annually which saw the participation by other governmental bodies such as fisheries, cooperatives and multi-purpose labs.
Aligned partners like CARDI (Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute), the Republic of China (Taiwan) Agriculture Technical Mission also collaborated with the Agriculture Department.
This year’s Open Day event as usual was held at the Department’s Grounds in La Guerite in Basseterre, observed under this year’s theme ‘Implementing Sustainable Approach to Enhance Climate Resilience, Agricultural Marketing and to Advance Economic Agricultural Development’.