Page 28 – Agriculture

Training for Orange Walk Beekeepers on Finances and Record keeping

May 3, 2022:

The Orange Walk Co-operatives Department today hosted a one-day training session for Orange Walk Beekeepers. The event was hosted at the Yo Creek Agriculture Station in the Orange Walk District.

The training, which focused on finances and record keeping, was facilitated by Inspector of Cooperative Records Mr. Hector Torres.

The Orange Walk Beekeepers were formed in 2016 and is made up of 25 active members. This workshop is the last training session being hosted for the group, which now will qualify to be registered as a new Cooperative.

Sheep Management Field Day

Sheep Management Field Day

The Taiwan ICDF Breeding Sheep and Goat Production and Guidance System Enhancement Project (Sheep Project Phase II) in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Enterprise (MAFSE) held a “Sheep Management Field Day” at the farm of Mr. Benito Vasquez in Paraiso Village in the Corozal District on Wednesday 2nd March, 2022.

The field day was held with 15 sheep and goat farmers, Extension Officers, and other interested parties from the Corozal District. The field day included demonstrations in: i) Feeding Management; ii) Sheep barn management; iii) Breed demonstration; iv) Record keeping and v) Meat cuts preparation. Mr. Benito Vasquez is a well- respected sheep farmer and demonstrated his skills and abilities during the event.

The field day is a part of the Sheep Project Second Phase’s commitment to have farmers teaching farmers. The Sheep Project Second Phase includes a budget of US$3,000,000 for a four year implementation that was signed and agreed to in March 2020 with objectives to be achieved including, among others, to continue to assist Belizean farmers to further improve the quality of their sheep and goats, to conduct a market study and value chain analysis to promote consumption and market penetration for sheep and goat products, and to strengthen the sheep and goat traceability system to improve value chain efficiencies.

During the closing remarks, Project Specialist Mr. Eason Huang reaffirmed the commitment of the Breeding Sheep and Goat Production and Guidance System Enhancement Project to continue supporting the farmers of Belize through theoretical and practical trainings and educational outreach.

Cold Storage Unit Training

The Agriculture Department of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Enterprise along with the Cooperatives Department and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), were in San Carlos offer training in cold storage facility usage. This training follows the acquisition of cold storage units by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Enterprise through JICA for farmers in productive zones in Belize. Farmers from San Carlos will be able to benefit from the use of one of the cold storage units when installed.

The group also visited existing storage facilities in nearby Indian Creek, a Mennonite community located next to San Carlos.

The training will also be given to farmers in Cayo, Belize and Corozal, where the first storage facilities will be installed, with a view to assist in the post-harvest management of cash crops like onions and potatoes.

Aquaculture workshop

Aquaculture workshop held at Tilapia Hatchery Center at Central Farm

An aquaculture workshop was held Yesterday at the Tilapia Hatchery Center at Central Farm, Cayo District.

Two aquaculture experts from CEFAS, the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science, an agency under the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) in the UK, conducted the workshop. CEFAS seeks national and international networking in areas of aquaculture and marine science, and are in Belize to help examine how Belize can deal with issues related to development and future planning in aquaculture, fisheries and food security.

They are part of a UK delegation that is in country holding a series of workshops, meetings and seminars to assist in sectors like agriculture, mariculture, aquaculture and the environment. The UK Delegation are in Belize to launch the Ocean Country Partnership Programme (OCPP) funded under the UK’s Blue Planet Fund (BPF) in Belize. They will continue to hold workshops and meetings tomorrow and Wednesday as the linkages to establish projects beneficial to Belize are explored.

Several participants from local shrimp farms and seaweed farms participated virtually in the workshop along with the participants from the Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Enterprise and the Tilapia Hatchery Center who were physically at the workshop.

Handing Over of 800 Small Hive Beetle Traps

Handing Over of 800 Small Hive Beetle Traps

The Ministry of Agriculture Food Security & Enterprise received today a donation of 800 small hive beetle traps from the International Regional Organization for Agricultural Health (OIRSA).

The traps donated were purchased from Australia and have a total valued of $3,637.00 USD. The handing over was made by Country Representative Mr. Fermin Blanco and was received by the Minister of Agriculture Hon. Jose Abelardo Mai. This donation will assist bee farmers who are being affected by this Pest.

The small hive beetle, Aethina tumida, is a scavenger and parasite of honey bee colonies. The beetle is native to Africa, but was introduced to Belize in (2016) mainly by commercial movement of bees. Both adult and larval beetles feed on larvae, pollen, honey and bee broods. The adult female lays her eggs in the hive. The larvae hatch and feed on broods, pollen and honey, then leave the hive to pupate in the soil, where the adults hatch, then fly to look for new hives.

Minister of Agriculture meets with UK Delegation

Minister of Agriculture meets with UK Delegation

UK Delegation are in Belize

to launch the Ocean Country Partnership Programme (OCPP) funded under the UK’s Blue Planet Fund (BPF) in Belize.

Her Excellency Claire Evans together with the head of delegation James Smith, Deputy Director for International Marine Environment for the Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (Defra) concluded today’s launch activities with Minister Hon. Jose Mai and CEO Servulo Baeza of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Enterprise, to discuss sustainable seafood.

Also in attendance was Thomas Pye and Amber Pengilley from Defra, Peter Kohler and Grant Stentiford, Centre for Fisheries, Aquaculture, Science (Cefas), Louisa Fennelly, Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC), and Maxine Monsanto, Climate Change Policy Adviser, BHC.

Days of Healing Youth Center Grows Green

On December 2, 2021, Minister Jose Abelardo Mai visited the Days of Healing compound on Vernon Street in Southside, Belize City. Days of Healing is an organization run by Mr. Perry ‘Stikz’ Smith dedicated to finding alternative lifestyles to violence and crime for young people. Minister Mai had initiated moves to get the youth organization a greenhouse and vegetable seedlings.

One month later we are proud to report that the seedlings are growing healthy and well in their greenhouse, and that they are being tended well by the young people. With initiatives like this, citizens in urban areas can grow their own vegetables for personal consumption or for income generation.

We say kudos to Mr. Smith and the young people…keep on planting, growing and building Belize!

Workshop on Sheep and Goat Nutrition Management and Reproductive Biotechnology

Workshop on Sheep and Goat Nutrition Management and Reproductive Biotechnology

A workshop on Sheep and Goat Nutrition Management and Reproductive Biotechnology was held at the Aguada Hotel & Restaurant, Santa Elena, Cayo District, with practical sessions at the National Sheep and Goat Breeding Center at Central Farm.

The objective of the training workshop is to train seed instructors (training of trainers) in Sheep and Goat Nutrition and Feeding Management and Reproductive Biotechnology to impact rearing techniques in sheep and goat production so productivity of the National Sheep and Goat Industry in Belize may be improved. This is another activity planned under the Breeding Sheep and Goat Production and Guidance System Enhancement Project (Sheep and Goat Project II) through ICDF Funding.

The presenters are two experts from the University of San Carlos, Guatemala with more than 20 years’ experience in Sheep and Goat Reproductive Biotechnology using Artificial Insemination and Laparoscopy. The training will include methods of Sheep and Goat Rearing, Nutrition Management, Selection and Reproductive Biotechnology including Artificial Insemination and Laparoscopy, with demonstrations and practical sessions in Sheep and Goat Semen Collection, Straw Preparation and Elaboration with both fresh and frozen in Liquid Nitrogen, Artificial Insemination in Synchronized ewes using CIRD, Prostaglandin and Gonadotropin Hormones.

Expected to be trained at this workshop are a total of 13 participants including 6 Extension Officers (Livestock) and 1 Focal Point from the Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Enterprise, 1 CARDI Technician, 2 Sheep and Goat Project Technicians, 1 University of Belize Lecturer and 2 sheep and goat farmers. At the end of the workshop, the 6 Extension Officers trained are expected to engage in technical transfer of knowledge and information by training sheep and goat farmers in Belize and the trained Sheep and Goat Project Technician will practice his expertise at the National Sheep and Goat Breeding Center at Central Farm with the help of the Focal Point.

Hon. Jose Abelardo Mai, Speaker of the House, Hon. Valerie Woods, Special Envoy H.E Rossana Briceño toured the Agro-processing Unit at Central Farm

Minister of Agriculture Hon. Jose Abelardo Mai, Speaker of the House, Hon. Valerie Woods, Special Envoy H.E Rossana Briceño toured the Agro-processing Unit at Central Farm

Women and small farmers are now gaining new entrepreneurship skills as they learn how to add shelf life to their farm produce, to earn more profits by turning their raw farm produce into value-added products, at the Agro-processing unit of the Central Farmer Research Development and Innovation Center.

Special Envoy for Families and Children, Mrs Rossana Briceño witnessed how the center is developing new products for the domestic market with the potential to also develop into exports, when she led the women of the House of Representatives and the Senate on a tour of the facility last Friday morning, November 26.

The center has been teaching other small farmers how to get into the business of making soy sauce and pepper sauce through better packaging, labeling and marketing. Other farmers have been taught how to turn their soursop fruits, which they can’t sell on the local market, into pulp to deliver to larger processors for making soursop juice, explained the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security Hon. Jose Abelardo Mai.

Similarly, the banana farmers stood to take a huge loss from thousands of boxes of bananas which did not meet market standard for export, as foreign buyers are much fickler about the quality and appearance of the fruit they buy. The Center has helped them salvage the food value of their crop, by processing the fruit into dried fruit snacks and into banana flour, to be made into banana bread and a nutritious fruit drink. The ministry’s fundamental philosophy has been to make Belize self-sufficient in food by producing local products to replace import, and Minister Mai said his ministry is confident that their banana flour will meet the nutrition standards to replace the “Incaparena” soy and corn flour mix, which the Ministry of Education has been importing as a food supplement for the schools feeding program. This would be an important step forward for the children and the farmers.

This was Special Envoy Briceño’s interest in her tour of the facility, how these value-added products might help the sustainability of the schools feeding programme. Funding is limited, and so she was investigating how to enlist the support of the Ministries of Health and Wellness and Agriculture to partner with the Education ministry to help feed schoolchildren at least one solid meal per day. She noted that many families have been struggling with unemployment during the pandemic. The parents are eager for their children to return to the classrooms for in person instruction, so that their children might be well fed, through the Education ministry’s “Early Start” schools feeding program. Briceño is also the principal of St Peter’s Anglican School in Orange Walk Town, which has had a feeding program since 1991. She lamented at times seeing her students vomiting from an empty stomach with nothing to throw up, because they had not eaten from the night before. Children cannot learn on an empty stomach, if the system fails them in the kitchen, she cautioned. Her concern was to taste-test the quality of the snacks, the jams, jellies, fruit preserves and food produced to determine if they were something the children would readily eat.

Speaker of the House Hon. Valerie Woods led the members of the Belize Parliamentary Alliance against Hunger and Malnutrition (BPAHM) who accompanied Briceño. She said the bipartisan fight against hunger was begun under the previous administration in April 2016, with the support of the regional “Meso-America Sin Hambre” initiative of the Mexican International Development Cooperation Agency (AMEXCID), which was also funded by the United Nations’ Food & Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Temporary Relocation of the Ministry of Agriculture Policy Unit

Temporary Relocation of the Ministry of Agriculture Policy Unit

The Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security & Enterprise would like to inform the public that the Policy Unit under the department of Agriculture has been temporary relocated to H.M Queen Elizabeth the Second Boulevard at the Ministry of Natural Resources building in Belmopan. The Unit can be contacted at phone number 828-5096 or 822-2241.