CASTRIES, St. Lucia, CMC – The St. Lucia government says it has entered into an agreement with Guyana that will result in a boost for the agricultural sector as the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) region continues with efforts to strengthen food security and reduce the multi-billion US dollar import bill.

Prime Minister Phillip J Pierre, delivering the EC$2.05 billion (One EC dollar = US 0.37 cent) national budget to Parliament on Tuesday night, said that agriculture continues to be an important source of employment in the rural communities.

“This year we will make some strategic interventions in our agriculture sector to reduce our food import bill and strengthen our food security. Our government remains committed to the CARICOM goal of reducing our food import bill by 25 per cent by 2025.

“I am pleased to inform you of a collaboration between Guyana and St. Lucia on an agriculture innovation and entrepreneurship programme,” Pierre said, adding that the goals of this programme are to introduce cost-effective climate-smart technology and innovation in agriculture, build the capacity of the youth in climate-smart technology and create a sustainable avenue to engage and incentivise youth participation in agriculture entrepreneurship.

Pierre said that the programme has commenced, and three shade houses have arrived and are being constructed at Union, north of here.

Pierre said that the agriculture sector is estimated to have rebounded by 10.3 per cent in 2024, with expansions in all subsectors, contributing 1.4 per cent to real gross domestic product (GDP)

He said banana production grew by 11.1 per cent totalling 3993 tonnes, and that’s after a relatively good first quarter for banana production, drought conditions, a shortage in banana boxes and the spread of leaf spot disease, Black Sigatoka required the government to provide EC$2.8 million in support to farmers who suffered losses.

Pierre said, notwithstanding these challenges, total banana exports rose by 10.1 per cent relative to 2023 to 2518 tonnes, with regional sales accounting for 98.7% of exports.

He said domestic purchases from supermarkets increased by 15.9 percent while hotel sales declined by four per cent due to the closure of some hotels in the latter part of 2024.

“Non-banana crop production grew by 9.4 per cent in 2024. This growth was due to better weather conditions, farmer resilience, and government support throughout 2024. Government support included the distribution of water tanks, fertilisers, pesticides, seedlings, protective equipment, and other inputs under the Unleashing the Blue Economy project,” Pierre said, adding that revenue from non-banana crops increased by 18.3 per cent to EC$19.7 million in 2024.

He said the livestock subsector expanded by 18.2 per cent last year and that production increased in all industries within the livestock subsector.

“Chicken and pork production increased by 29.5 per cent in 2024 due to increased consumer demand for local chicken. Egg production increased by 5.5 per cent to 1.8 million dozen eggs in 2024.

“It is worthy to note Mr. Speaker that large-scale operators demonstrated greater resilience and improved operational efficiencies resulting in the increase in that sub-sector,” Pierre said, adding “there was an overall decline in fishing due to environmental factors, less favourable ocean conditions, sargassum seaweed, and the effects of climate change”.