'NDP has killed off agriculture' - Edmund G. Maduro
He was speaking to our newsroom on Saturday June 11, 2016 while lamenting on the state of agriculture and commercial fishing in the Virgin Islands.
According to Mr Maduro, the government ministers are only concerned with their "rich white friends," adding that this does not mean he is a racist.
“You notice that agriculture is dead?” he asked, noting that one of the most progressive ideas that came from the government on agriculture is that of the greenhouses. However, he lamented that those facilities never got off the ground in the way they were meant.
“We could have been exporting thousands of dollars worth of food to the United States but they are only interested in being among their rich white friends,” he said.
“I am not a racist [for saying that]. I would punish a black man just as how I would punish a white man,” he said.
Maduro noted that both Premier and Minister of Finance Dr The Honourable D. Orlando Smith and Minister for Natural Resources and Labour Dr The Honourable Kedrick D. Pickering are medical doctors who ought to appreciate the importance of good food to a nation's health and wellness.
He said that with a disappearing agriculture industry, it opens up the territory to food which may have questionable health value.
This news site observed the scant participation of last year's Farmers' Week, a clear signal that the agricultural sector had been on the decline. The 2016 Farmers' Week activities were altogether cancelled and this spoke volumes as to the state of the sector.
According to officials of the Department of Agriculture, the participation in 2015 was at an all time low with just 20 participants compared to previous years when the numbers had been significantly higher. Officials disclosed to this news site had said then that it was a challenge to get the farmers to participate in the event.
The farmers had also accused the management of the Department of working over the heads of the farmers rather than side by side with them.
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