In an address on Thursday 18th November, during a ceremony to mark the milestone, the Minister congratulated the institution for the outstanding involvement in the federation’s agricultural development.
“These accomplishments of the IICA office in St Kitts and Nevis are but a microcosm, a snapshot if you will, of the enormous positive permeation that the Institute has made in the agricultural dimension, and the economic and social development of this nation,” the Agriculture Minister said.
According to Harris, IICA’s commitment goes beyond what they have done in the past and extends into the future of St. Kitts and Nevis’ agriculture sector development.
“The Ministry of Agriculture, Marine Resources and Cooperatives, which I have the great honour of leading, is responsible for the formulation and implementation of national policies and programmes for achieving growth and development in agriculture, through the maximization of all available resources, be they material or human. To this end, we have on several occasions requested technical assistance from the National and Head Office of IICA, to help us in the furtherance and fruition of many of our policies and programmes. IICA is presently assisting us in the formulation of a strategic framework for the next five years,” Harris revealed.
The Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) is based in Washington, DC, United States, but has been operating through its local office her for the past 18years.
IICA is a specialized agency of the Inter-American System, and its purposes are to encourage and support the efforts of its Member States of which St. Kitts and Nevis is a part, to achieve agricultural development and well-being for rural populations.
With more than six decades of institutional life, the institute is responding to new mandates issued by the Heads of State and Government of the Americas, the General Assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS) and the ministers of agriculture of the Americas which includes St. Kitts and Nevis, to reposition itself so that it can meet both the new challenges facing agriculture and the requests for support it receives from its member countries.