Food on the table

Residents of the West St George (WSG) constituency can now fashion their menu and in fact set their lunch and dinner tables complete with chicken which is home-grown.{{more}}

On October 10 this year, nine farmers were given the opportunity to be part of a Farmers’ Co-operative and received between 30 and 60 broiler chickens (400 in total) and appropriate feed to get the birds to maturity. Six weeks later the farmers began preparing the birds for the kitchen table and now residents can put in their direct orders to the Co-operative or obtain their WSG home-grown whole chicken from most supermarkets in the constituency.

The project is Phase 1 of a poultry initiative of Parliamentary Representative for West St George Cecil Mckie, with the objective being to empower farmers in the constituency to become entrepreneurs in the poultry sector and in so doing take a bold step towards eventual self-sufficiency in chicken in West St George.

Phase 2 of the project allowed the Co-operative to purchase a further 600 broiler chicks, which have been distributed to 17 farmers, with another eight producers being added to the initial nine participants. These birds will be ready for the Christmas season 2013.

Support for the poultry initiative has come from the West St George localized business sector and the West St George New York diaspora, with technical support from ECGS.

A release from Mckie said he has already initiated discussions with possible investors to move the project further, with the possible installation of a hatchery, which will allow the Co-operative to have a guaranteed supply of chickens and extend the base of providers for the West St George constituency and broader SVG Market.

“West St Georgians and Vincentians all can smile and bite into a juicy whole chicken which is home grown in the constituency of West St George,” the release said.