| 1.4 Million From FAO for Agriculture Development |
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| Written by Administrator |
| Thursday, 04 March 2010 00:00 |
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The projects will see technical assistance given to Belize’s agriculture sector in areas of grain storage and the improving of extension services within the Ministry of Agriculture. FAO’s representative for Belize, Jamaica and the Bahamas Dr. Dunstan Campbell, who signed on behalf of the FAO, says that one of the projects will see the improvement of post-harvest handling practices of basic grains for small and medium farmers which will look at the production and storage and the distribution amongst small farmers. While the project is one that will offer technical expertise it will also provide some sample storage facilities that will be used for demonstration purposes. Dr. Campbell says that the idea is to improve on the storing capacity for basic grains since this is important in ensuring food security in Belize.The second project will focus on improving the extension services being offered by the Ministry of Agriculture. This, he says, is currently not up to the standard where it should be. He adds that with the advent of the information age, the thinking was that the extension services would no longer be necessary; however, that has proven otherwise. Campbell says that in order for farmers to have better production there needs to be an efficient and effective extension service that would be both publicly and privately operated. |
The Minister of Agriculture and the Food and Agriculture Organization and the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) have signed on to a U.S. $700,000 Dollars Memorandum of Understanding for the implementation of two projects.