Ministry organizes series of cocoa meetings

Potential cocoa farmers, along with officials of the Ministry of Agriculture and the St Vincent and the Grenadines Cocoa Company are supposed to meet today,{{more}} for a series of meetings geared towards mass production of the commodity here.

Minister of Agriculture Saboto Caesar announced the meetings last week, during a press conference, during which he stated that plans are underway for cocoa cultivation.

“We would like farmers to come to these meetings to show their interest in being a part of the national project, and in entering into arrangements that concern production, and how they intend to capitalize on the production jointly with the St Vincent and the Grenadines Cocoa Company, which is an offshoot of the Amajaro Company.”

According to Caesar, the meetings are scheduled to be held at the New Grounds, Dumbarton and Wallilabou Agricultural Stations.

Caesar said that about forty demonstration plots will be organized to begin the planting process within the next thirty days, and that he had been working with the Banana Unit to see how best the inter-cropping of banana and cocoa can be realized.

“Other crops would also be experimented with, but we want to see, for the most part, how we can incentivize the production of bananas, as we embark on Operation Plant Back, if we can do a coincidence between the planting of the cocoa and the replanting of the bananas.

“Also I was updated by the SVG Cocoa Company, that several private sectors who have already been contracted in St Vincent and the Grenadines have already begun the establishment of nurseries, where seeds and seedlings are being nurtured and these will be ready for planting when we begin the planting process.”

Caesar pointed out that attendance at the meetings, along with registration of interested farmers, is critical to the project, so that issues such as the rehabilitation of fields, along with other topics will be discussed.

“Once you have shown interest in these meetings to go forward with the SVG Cocoa Company, then we will enter in contract with you which will detail what incentives you will receive, and how the program will be planned as it pertains to the rehabilitation of the fields.”

Meanwhile, Andrew Hadley, Armajaro’s local representative, said at the press conference that the response from farmers so far has been good, and that he is pleased with the interest shown by them in the project.

He said the main issue so far is the sourcing of plant material.

“This is extremely important because without planting the proper plant material you can’t expect to get good yields, and so we have had some problems…. However, we are starting to make progress, and soon there will be a free flow of plant material coming to St Vincent.”

These plants are expected to be sourced from Trinidad and Tobago, in time for the first planting session.(JJ)