Minister of Agriculture highlights importance of youth in agriculture

A Vincentian who will be 30 years old in 2030 missed the period between 1990 to 1998 when the banana industry in St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) was at its peak.

“So, in 2030, a young man who is in his prime in the agriculture sector, if you tell him about the trucks that used to be coming down Sion Hill and from Geest Shed all the way up to Girls’ High School, and the shipment day when the whole country was mobilized…and if you tell that young man about mini wet pack, and you tell him about WINFARM and the fair trade group and the Banana Growers’ Association, he is from a whole different dispensation…,”Minister of Agriculture Saboto Caesar said on Thursday, March 13, 2025.

The minister made these remarks at the launch of the Agriculture Productivity Recovery and Youth Farmers Training Project, a collaborative initiative between St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) and the Republic of China, (Taiwan).

The two-year initiative is costing $3.136 million, with Taiwan contributing $2.5 million and SVG putting in $630,000.

The formal signing ceremony was held at the Taiwan Embassy, at Murray’s Road and is expected to focus on getting young people involved in agriculture.

Caesar described the project as an intervention that will go down as one of the most profound steps made in the post- banana period to engage young people in the production of food in SVG.

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