The IICA Barbados Office hosted the Director General, Víctor M. Villalobos, on his first visit to Barbados.
November, 2015 (IICA). His packed schedule included the signing of renewed cooperation agreements with both the ACP-EU Technical Centre for Agriculture and Rural Cooperation (CTA) and the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI) and courtesy calls to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food, Fisheries and Water Resource Management, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the EU Delegation.
Dr. Villalobos also got the opportunity to go into the field to get a first-hand look at some of the projects that the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) Barbados is implementing with its partners.
The first field visit included the hand-over of a “Perone Beehive” to Ras Michael Hinkson, member of the Barbados Beekeepers Association and president of the Organic Growers and Consumers Association. The promotion of the Perone hives was part of IICA Barbados involvement in the Family Agriculture Flagship project and its focus on Permapiculture as an alternative beekeeping modality that promotes bee health and productivity. To date nine (9) hives were constructed for local beekeepers.
The second visit was to the Deighton Griffith Secondary School where IICA is supporting the Parent Teachers’ Association (PTA) in converting the school’s conventional agriculture plot into an Organic Garden. This initiative is complementary to the IICA Barbados Youth Farm Summer Programme and demonstrates their commitment to the inclusion of youth in agriculture by equipping them with the knowledge and skills to face agriculture’s future opportunities and challenges.
To date IICA has supported Deighton Griffith in the construction of a ferro-cement water tank to store harvested rainwater and the establishment of a composter to manage the municipal organic waste generated at the school.
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