Edmund Maduro said the government was already looking at having a farmers market implemented. Photo: VINO/File

Farmer Moviene Fahie expressed that she was tired of fighting the battle for local farmers and was branded a trouble maker for her efforts. Photo: VINO/FIle

Host of the Speak Your Mind TV show Sam Henry is advocating for a farmers depot for farmers in the Territory. Photo:VINO/File

“We are working on something like that right now,” Maduro stated, “I’m doing some consultancy work with government on farming… ”

Maduro suggested that it would be difficult to share the current stage of the process with regard to a time frame for implementation but noted that he is trying to get farmers together to further discuss the proposed plans.

“It’s not really easy where you got to deal with so many people,” he added.

The consultant also said that the process was not necessarily at a stage where he could offer any comment as he was currently “doing some research and studying and talking to the farmers right now… it would be a week or two before I could get into anything,” Maduro said.

“The government is definitely moving in the direction of [working with] the greenhouses and how they can do something in farming.”

Meanwhile, champion farmer, Moviene Fahie expressed that she had no difficulty with getting her produce sold and was tired of being the person that had to speak out for farmers in the Territory.

“The rest of people here just sitting back and just want one set of people to continue talking…” Ms Fahie said. She claimed that she had been branded a trouble maker for expressing her views and would no longer be speaking for other farmers in the future. “I will do what I got to do and that’s it,” she continued, “they just want to sit back and get things done, you don’t get things done so, you have to get up and talk.”

Asked whether she was contacted by Mr Maduro regarding the government’s intentions, Ms Fahie indicated that she was contacted but was not “studying” him. “These people aint serious, I have no time to waste with these people, let them fight their battle,” Ms Fahie said.

See previous story posted March 5, 2013:

'Sam' advocates for Gov’t aided farmers depot 

ROAD TOWN, Tortola, VI – Farmers are asking for land, a cooperative, water and government intervention – not a handout, but assistance in the areas to produce food, according to host of the Speak Your Mind TV show Julio S. Henry.

“Food security is important, whether it is fishing [or] agriculture,” Henry said on his show which was aired on a local TV station on March 2, 2013, “I would like to see the government take a more serious proactive role in farming…”

He felt that farmers should put together an association and approach the government with the idea of setting up a farmer’s market in mind.

“Go to the government and ask the government for the agriculture depot [located across from LIME in Road Town], get the government to develop that enough to where the farmers can do the same thing they do at the fishery,” the host suggested.

He felt that farmers can then produce their crop, sell it to the depot and the depot would then be responsible [with the assistance of government] for selling it to the wider community. He reasoned that this would guarantee farmers an income and they would no longer have to be “sitting at the roundabout everyday waiting for their crops to go bad if nobody buys them”.

One caller on the programme felt it was a good idea but thought the farmers needed to come together to make the initiative possible. “We need to start getting ourselves together about this food security pronto,” the caller said, “the [health] insurance thing is a big deal but… I think food security is a bigger priority next to economic betterment and then worry about insurance afterwards.”

The host felt that fishing was also important to the Virgin Islands but what bothered him much, was when one looked around to see who was really supplying the Virgin islands with much of its commercial fish, it was not VIslanders.

“The tourists are also looking for this kind of stuff (the agricultural depot) that they can go and get their fresh stuff, because a lot of tourists are health conscious when they travel,” he added.

He concluded that once VIslanders could supply a million dolllars' worth of food in their own economy, it would greatly reduce the dependence on other imported items.