Competitions galore for Exhibition

From best garden, to best river fish, to best sow, cattle and village.

The 2008 National Agricultural and Agro based Industrial Exhibition (NAIE) promises to be a competition laden affair, with something in store for not only farmers, fisherfolk and other participants, but also for spectators of the four day event.{{more}}

The Exhibition, which comes around every five years, was last held in December 2003, after a 21-year absence.

This year, it takes place from October 9th to 12th at the Richmond Hill Playing Field.

According to Agriculture officials, this year’s Exhibition has many prizes in store for the participants, whose contributions would not go unrecognized.

Some of the competitions that participants will be contesting include the biggest bull, biggest cow, best tree crop, best root crop, best home and school garden, best poultry, livestock and pig farmer and best village.

There will also be essay and painting competitions, most outstanding agro processor, and banana farmer competition.

The theme for this year’s Exhibition is “Innovative Agricultural and Agro Industry – fuel for Sustainable Development”.

The Exhibition will overlap with the 2008 Caribbean Week of Agriculture (CWOA), which is also scheduled to take place here from October 6th to 10th.

This convention will see more than 200 Agriculture officials, including the Ministers of Agriculture of the Caribbean territories attending.

Now in its 8th year and under the theme “Transforming the Agricultural Sector Through Value Addition”, the event is used to project the increasing importance of the agricultural sector and rural life to the economy.

The CWOA is coordinated by the CARICOM Secretariat, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the Caribbean Agricultural Research and development Institute (CARDI) and the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on griculture.(JJ)