Caesar: Agriculture is not easy work

Agriculture is not easy work, says Minister of Agriculture Saboto Caesar.{{more}}

He, however, is of the view that hard work pays off in many ways.

Caesar, who recently took over the Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Transformation, Fisheries, Forestry and Industry, is continuing to encourage farmers here not to give up on their crops, despite the trials they may be faced with at times.

Speaking of his personal experience, Caesar said he witnessed his parents go through the struggles of the agriculture sector, more so bananas, in order for him to gain proper education.

“A lot of my discipline as a human being came from the discipline that my parents would have exhibited on a daily basis when they went to the farm.”

Proud about his achievements accomplished through his parents’ farming, he also revealed that he assisted his parents with their crops.

The Minister was at the time speaking at the launch of a pruning exercise that is expected to rehabilitate, in the first instance, 150 acres of cocoa fields.

He also thanked the farmers of St Vincent and the Grenadines for sponsoring his education from the primary school level to university.

“I received a banana scholarship at the age of ten that lasted seven years. I completed my secondary education right up to A’Level College, and I received a national scholarship where the tax payers of the country and the banana farmers who are also tax payers of the country, that facilitated my studies at the university level,” the Minister revealed.

However, Caesar warned that as Minister of Agriculture, he is not in the position for “the optics.”

He said he is aware of the criticisms that are being tossed his way because of his approach to his responsibilities as Minister of Agriculture. That, however, is not an issue to him, Caesar said.

…”I love my critics because my critics are saying that I am doing this only for the optics. Some persons are saying that we in the Ministry, we are trying to work magic, but if we are here to work magic, we are here to work magic for the benefit of the people of St Vincent and the Grenadines,” Caesar further stated.