The Government of Dominica is committed to taking initiatives geared at encouraging the youth to embrace agriculture as a lucrative sector for economic survival.
With the current farm population on the island now on a decline, Dominica’s Director of Agriculture Ricky Brumant says such programmes are designed to give the youth the foundation to make their agricultural pursuits a success.
He told a Youth Forum on Wednesday that, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Division of Agriculture, through affiliates will plat form in the next few years a number of initiatives, to ensure that youth take their active place in the development of the sector.
“We are tabling initiatives to ensure that youth are given the tools, not just say that we are developing a program or designing a program to engage youth without the tools, we believe in giving the man a boat, giving him a rod and teaching him how to the fish, not only that, but taking him along and ensure that this fish when it is caught gets to our plate” Brumant stated.
The Director of Agriculture is convinced that there is a place for Dominica’s Youth in agriculture.
He has encouraged youth to make themselves available for discussion and negotiations on the future of agriculture.
For young people who are serious about making agriculture a career choice, Mr. Brumant said the field of agriculture is broad. He emphasized that agriculture should not be viewed as a dirty, back bending exercise.
“Please know from today that Agriculture is not just planting and harvesting, but there is a gamut of careers that you can get involved in. For example, if you want to be involved in the medical field you can do Veterinary Science, if you want to be involved in Chemistry, you can do soil chemistry, you can do Biology, soil physics, mechanization and irrigation and a whole list of other options” Mr. Brumant explained.
On Wednesday young people from several organizations met at the Roseau Fisheries complex to share ideas and make recommendations which will form part of the Caribbean Agriculture Policy (CPA).