THE?FIRST specialized food zone in Barbados is getting under way in St George.
This was announced yesterday by Dr J.R. Deep Ford, sub-regional coordinator for the Caribbean for the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), when he delivered a presentation at an agriculture symposium put on by the Barbados Agricultural Society.
Ford said the FAO, a United Nations organisation,?was working with the Ministry of Agriculture on a food zone concept.
“We have hired a food zone manager and the first food zone is St George. We are looking at the productivity of several crops in St George and we want to double the productivity and production in several areas …”
He added that they had also spoken to the police about the need to create a crop theft-free zone in the parish.
“We told them we want to make St George a predial-free larceny zone – not the whole of Barbados but let’s start with a piece and let’s try to get that right and if we can do it there we can do it somewhere else and we can extend it,” he said.
Insisting that crop theft was a problem that could be solved, Ford called for more involvement by the legislative and the judiciary processes across the region. (MB)
