BASSETERRE, St. Kitts, October 17, 2024 (SKNIS) – Towards its drive to reduce the Federation’s high importation of food, the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Marine Resources held a distribution drive on Wednesday, October 16, 2024, where thousands of banana and plantain suckers were handed over to local farmers and backyard gardeners in St. Kitts.

In total, approximately 13,000 banana suckers and between 12,000 to 15,000 plantain suckers were distributed during the highly successful drive, which formed part of the activities for the week-long observance of World Food Day—observed annually on October 16.

Ian Chapman, the Head of the Crops Programme within the Ministry of Agriculture, noted that Wednesday’s crop distribution drive will ultimately play a significant role in boosting local food production and reducing the country’s dependency on imported produce.

“This initiative was spearheaded and led by the 25 by 25 programme as the ministry continues its intervention to help reduce the food import bill. When we look at the statistics, banana and plantains are two commodities we see of high imports,” Mr. Chapman said, noting that this is mainly due to the diverse nature of the two crops.

Apart from being consumed fresh, both bananas and plantains are widely used in the agro-processing sector to create a variety of products.

“And so we really see that by growing more of these commodities locally we can make a significant [dent] in our food importation bill,” Mr. Chapman added.

Wednesday’s activity was the second distribution drive for banana and plantain suckers this year. Earlier in July, the ministry distributed roughly 26,000 suckers to farmers across St. Kitts.

Both distribution drives were held at the designated Agriculture Open Day site at the Royal Basseterre Valley National Park.