BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – WITH the Federation continuing to register a high food import bill, the Government has made a concerted effort to plug holes in the Agriculture sector with regards to food wastage at the farm level in St. Kitts and Nevis.
Citizens and residents have been known to not adhere to calls by government officials, specifically those in the health and agriculture sectors, to consume more locally-produced crops.
For decades, many people have resorted to the use of canned products such as corned beef and other assorted processed foods, which have been blamed for the large scale of non-communicable diseases being registered in the country.
With farmers, over the years, complaining bitterly about not finding markets to sell their produce – owing largely to imported crops from Dominica and canned products as first preference - many of them have been forced to dump large quantities of their produce due to spoilage.
But in a sit down interview with SKNVibes, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture, Allistair Edwards explained that for some time now his Ministry has had an eye on the food chain in relation to produce getting from the farm to the market as well as the end products.
As a result, the Government’s Agriculture arm has been making a conscious and consistent effort to reduce losses at every stage.
“I can recall recently there were some workshops being held around the Caribbean and St. Kitts and Nevis was not left out. We had representatives from the farming community and actual farmers who were sponsored to attend – along with one or two technicians.”
Edwards noted that following those workshops, a number of critical information was returned to the Federation which is now being applied by the technicians and farmers.
He pointed to the Farmers Field School system, which is geared primarily to alleviating such problems from occurring.
Countries in the Caribbean and Latin America are known to have recorded high food wastage.
According to the FAO November 2016 report, nations of Latin America and the Caribbean have strengthened their political will and institutional capacity to meet the challenge of food losses by creating active platforms for articulation at different levels and with diverse sectors.
Asked what were the major causes for food wastage in St. Kitts, Edwards said that many farmers may be the resulting factor because of low profit margins.
He also pointed to faulty techniques, which could be the number one cause to damaged produce.
“A lot of it has to do with the cost of production; because what I have experienced is that farmers, rather than dropping their prices even though they were advised to, prefer to throw away the food rather than to make less profit or even to break even. That aspect of it is deliberate!
“The other part of it has to do with our way of harvesting. For instance, we employ the old time method of using a hoe to dig potatoes. You know that when you slash potatoes you wouldn’t want to sell it; you would leave it in the fields or give it to the pigs.”
However, at the time of the interview, the Permanent Secretary was not in a position to provide statistics to indicate the level of wastage for 2016.
According to the FAO’s Latin America and Caribbean report, the organisation is currently training people in the area of using its methodology for characterizing and measuring food losses.
Over 500 people have been trained, including agriculture officials from St. Kitts and Nevis.
