Speech

By

Minister of Agriculture, Lands, Marinie Resources and Agroindustry

on the occasion of

Pesticides Awareness Week, 2009

Theme: “Improving Pesticides Management through Public Education  and Participation”.

Fellow Antiguans and Barbudans, it’s another year since we last observed Pesticides Awareness Week, an occasion which provides an unrivalled opportunity to inform us of the benefits and risks associated with pesticide use, as well as our role in rationalizing the use of these chemicals.  

Pesticides and Toxic Chemicals are used to enhance production of goods and services in sectors such as agriculture, manufacturing and tourism.   Accessing and properly applying registered pesticides is crucial to Antigua and Barbuda’s ability to yield better quality and quantity produce, especially for our nutritional needs. Nutrition is a fundamental pillar of human life, health and development and can affect our ability to achieve our local and international health objectives. Since we cannot prevent the use of pesticides and toxic chemicals in our country it is imperative that we strive to ensure that they are utilized and managed wisely so as to safeguard our health, our natural resources and our environment, while enhancing our economic development.

How can we balance the risks to humans, plants, animals and the environment posed by the presence of pesticides and toxic chemicals, against the benefits to society? This can be achieved primarily through legislation and public education. In an effort to address this issue that the Government of Antigua and Barbuda has initiated several policies, strategic action plans and legislation aimed at food safety, protection of the environment and sustainable agricultural and industrial development.

The theme for Pesticides Awareness week 2009, which commences Sunday 27, September, is

“Improving Pesticides Management through Public Education and Participation”.

The theme draws attention to the importance of the need to educate all pesticide applicators and users across Antigua and Barbuda and indeed the wider Caribbean about pest management alternatives, including the safe, proper, and legal use of pesticides and the promotion of responsible decision-making, which will protect pesticide users, public health, plant and animal health, and the environment.

In its ongoing efforts at public education, the Pesticides and Toxic chemicals Control Board in partnership with the Agricultural Extension Division, mounted a training course in January of this year, for Pest Control Operators, to facilitate their certification. Over seventy (70) persons participated, including Farmers, Pest Control Operators, Horticulturalist and Landscapers. However, only forty six percent (46 %) of the participants were successful in all the categories examined, thus underscoring the need for continued public education. The Pesticides and Toxic Chemicals Control Board plans to mount a second training course will be mounted shortly.

On the occasion of Pesticide Awareness Week 2009, I wish to applaud the Pesticides and Toxic Chemicals Control Board for the fundamental role it has been playing in:

· Regulating the importation, sale , use and distribution of pesticides in Antigua and Barbuda

· Ensuring that the public is informed and that specialized groups such as farmers pest Control Operators and concerned consumers are adequately trained in the safe use of pesticides.

The training of farmers and pest Control Operators in particular has been helping to reduce the health risks pesticides and toxic chemicals pose to themselves and the consuming public, as well as minimize environmental risks. I implore you to keep working diligently for the cause of improving pesticides management in Antigua and Barbuda.

As Minister responsible for pesticides management in Antigua and Barbuda, I will be ensuring that the Pesticides and Toxic chemicals Control Board is given the necessary resources, financial, and otherwise, first to educate and sensitize relevant persons with respect to their legal responsibilities, and second, to inspect and monitor pesticide operations to ensure compliance with the law.

However, it must be recognized that no individual, government or agency can achieve a safe chemical environment; we all must commit to working together to promote our economic viability while safeguarding the health of our people, our environment and our biodiversity, not only during Pesticides Awareness Week but on a daily basis.

I wish all Antiguans and Barbudans – chemical suppliers, manufacturers, farmers, householders and all who use chemicals – a thought filled Pesticides Awareness Week and beyond. Safety first must be a way of life. We must make the protection of human health and the environment the absolute priority in pest and disease management decisions.

I Thank You

————————————————————-

BRIEF REMARKS ON THE OCCASION OF THE WORLD FOOD DAY LUNCH & AWARDS CEREMONY

By Dr. Janil Gore-Francis; FAO National Correspondent

Ministry Headquarters: October 16, 2009

Theme: “Achieving Food Security in Times of Crisis”

I begin these brief remarks with a quote which gives an idea as to what hunger does to any red-blooded man or woman as regards food.

“Hunger makes you restless. you dream about food– not just any food, but perfect food, the best food, magical meals, famous and awe-inspiring, the one piece of meat, the exact taste of buttery corn, tomatoes so ripe they split and sweeten the air, beans so crisp they snap between the teeth, gravy like mother’s milk singing to your bloodstream.”
Dorothy Allison (1949–)

In support of World Food Day, Ahmed Djoghlaf, the Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity stated that in Latin America and the Caribbean, 53 million people suffer or are suffering from chronic hunger.  The Director General of the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has reported that one in every six persons suffers from hunger every day.

On this occasion of World Food Day when the world’s attention is once again on the topic of food, the theme that has been chosen by the FAO for this year’s observance is “Achieving Food Security in Times of Crisis”.  As all stakeholders grapple with the goal of obtaining food security as a matter of course, I wish for us all to think of what our role as individual stakeholders is in achieving such food security.  To name a few,

• Farmers must produce their crops using ever-improving technology to provide us – the population of Antigua and Barbuda – with fresh, wholesome food that is undoubtedly superior to imported foods;
• Ministry of Agriculture and other personnel must work closely with producers to ensure that the required technical support and information is readily accessible to the producers;
• Users and/or importers of agricultural inputs, particularly of pesticides, must acknowledge and execute their role in the judicious handling and use of pesticides and resort to its use only when absolutely necessary.
• Farmers and other stakeholders should institute systems and procedures that would ensure  rapid recuperation after any natural disaster whether it be a hurricane, earthquake, drought, flood or any other act of God;
• Members of the private sector should give some consideration to what their investment priorities should be and should come around to viewing, if they have not already done so, that preference should be given to the use, purchase and/or production of local produce and food before consideration is given to importing such items for consumption.
• Travelers should not view their ability to sneak regulated or banned items past our borders and into the country as a triumph but rather should view such action to be what it really is – a threat to our food security and even to the health sector and the tourism industry, to name a few.  The introduction of several invasive species such as the Pink Hibiscus Mealybug and the Giant African Snail have resulted in huge economic losses amounting to millions if not billions of dollars for some countries that have become infested with these pests.  We here in Antigua can also attest to some of the effects of these invasives.

As we observe World Food Day 2009 today, let us all reflect and begin to act on the important part that we each can play in ensuring that the negative impacts on the environment are minimized such that we not only achieve a state of food security in times of crisis but at ALL times.

HAVE A BLESSED WORLD FOOD DAY.