By Robert Andre Emmanuel
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The Ministry of Agriculture has secured an $800,000 grant from the Caribbean Development Fund (CDF) to acquire heavy equipment, part of a comprehensive infrastructural development plan that includes better water management and improved access to farms via roads.
During Tuesday’s press conference, Agriculture Minister Anthony Smith Jr outlined how these infrastructural improvements will support the ministry’s broader agricultural development goals.
“Farmers must be able to access their farms and outside of going there to work and plant, farmers must be able to transport their food from their farms to the different markets,” Smith emphasized.
This infrastructure initiative comes just days after the technical mission from the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) conducted field visits to assess ongoing water storage projects, highlighting the urgent need for improved agricultural infrastructure.
Director of Agriculture Gregory Bailey explained that the ministry will be taking an integrated approach to water management by developing ‘mega’ dams along natural waterways throughout Antigua.
“Geographically, in Antigua and Barbuda, we have some areas that are blessed with continuous waterways, and we’re seeking to exploit those natural waterways and expand them in order to build those dams,” Bailey explained.
The initiative will supplement the water provided through APUA’s reverse osmosis efforts, providing a dedicated water supply for agricultural use.
“The idea behind the ministry is to increase water production, to have an integrated approach to supplement what APUA is doing, take some of the load off of APUA and have water for agriculture,” Bailey added.
To ensure that farmers are able to get their produce from the farmland to the market, Minister Smith noted that there will be increased use of the quarry under his portfolio.
Minister Smith added they would “continue to look for other areas that we can have the aggregates needed to develop the roads for the farmers”.
The ministry’s move to improve farm access roads will address concerns raised by the Member of Parliament for St George, Honorable Algernon Watts who, last year, highlighted impassable access roads to farms as a major obstacle to agricultural development.
The newly secured CDF grant will fund two pieces of heavy-duty equipment, enhancing the ministry’s capacity to construct both water management systems and access roads.
Bailey emphasized how these infrastructure improvements would be fundamental to achieving the ministry’s broader agricultural development goals.
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