Dominica:Â Under the leadership and directiveness of Prime Minister Dr Roosevelt Skerrit, the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries, Blue and Green Economy, Roland Royer has recently appeared in an online interview where he discussed key factors and future plans under the theme of “Focus on Government and Development.”
According to the reports, while addressing the key issues and challenges in front of the government of the Commonwealth of Dominica, Minister of Agriculture Royer pointed out that the current plan under consideration is to conduct essential assessments across the region, including a few specific parameters such as land current, active farmers and potential for expansion.
In his remarks, Agriculture Minister added that there is a proper roadmap available to conduct smooth assessments during the process with different strategies, as there are no equal parameters. Still, the government is trying to ensure equal treatment in all mentioned sectors. Meanwhile, he clarified that investing in feeder roads will not be ideal as no active farmers work in the region.
“The fact that one of the primary and potential solutions we can offer as the government is to ensure the assessments in areas such as the social impacts, number of active farmers, expansion possibilities while narrowing down the list to focus on,” Roland Royer, Agriculture Minister of Dominica said during the conference. Â
Moreover, it was further conveyed that the assessments are supplementary and supported by the construction and rehabilitation process, which makes it more clear for the government of Dominica for which plan to follow in the future.
While answering the interviewer’s question regarding the assessments, he said, “So despite the challenges that you’ve just identified, some of the challenges faced within the industry, we must admit that the agriculture sector has rebounded pretty impressively since the passage of Hurricane Marias.”
Through his message, he made it clear that the agriculture industry in Dominica has been dealing with and making progress in a very intensifying manner even after the arrival of Hurricane Maria, as the aftermath of the hurricane had devastating impacts on the people of the country.
“Before I came here, I pulled out the figures from the P D N A, which reflected that during Maria, we suffered damages of 145 million losses among 10 to 335 million, and we were looking at a recovery cost of 259 million, but we have seen that rebound. So, minister, can you summarize where we are regarding crop production?” asked the interviewer to Agriculture Minister Roland.
Minister Royer answered while shedding light on the issue, “Export livestock production, but agriculture sector, the recovery I can report, it’s completed both on the national and macro level. If we look at the contribution to GDP, it can justify that. In 2016, the contribution of GDP agriculture, contribution to GDP was about 245 million Eastern Caribbean dollars.”
