ST.GEORGE’S, GRENADA, APRIL6th, 2011_ The faces of students at the St. Michaels R.C and St. Patrick’s R.C schools lit up today as Prime Minister Hon. Tillman Thomas presented two power tillers, two bags of fertilizer and a quantity of seeds each, to the school’s 4-H clubs.
The Prime Minister challenged the students to pay more attention to the agricultural sector, as a source of employment and a career.
“If you follow the news you’d realize that the price of food is increasing every day. Our country has fertile soil and we have become famous for the quality of our agricultural products. You should take advantage of this,” the Prime Minister told the students.
Against the backdrop of the “large amounts of money” governments allocate to fighting chronic diseases, such as diabetes and hypertension each year, the Grenadian leader, himself a farmer, urged the schools to include more locally grown foods in their diet.
Prime Minister Thomas told both groups of students that the presentation of the tillers is consistent with his government’s policy on agribusiness, which has been identified as one of five sectors that has the capacity for transforming Grenada’s economy.
He said the government has also identified the agricultural sector as one of the vehicles for increasing foreign exchange, increasing employment, reducing poverty and creating wealth for the people of Grenada.
“You must pay attention to your studies, especially the sciences. You are the future scientists that will develop new products from our raw material. We are at a period in our development when we need to pay more attention to adding value to the raw material we exported,” the Prime Minister told the students.
He pointed to Grenada Chocolate, which has been rated among the top ten best chocolates in the world, De La Grenada Industries-manufacturer of jams, jellies and other products from nutmegs and other local fruits, Noelville which manufactures Nutmed Spray for arthritis and Belmont Estate and George Vincent, manufactures of goat cheese, as indicators of the success of his government’s policy on agriculture.
The power tillers presented to the schools are two of the 50 donated to Grenada at the end of 2010 by the Peoples Republic of China, following a request by Prime Minister Thomas during a visit to that country the previous year.
The Prime Minister was accompanied by a team from the 4-H programme in the Ministry of Agriculture.
