St Lucia to See Pick-Up in Agriculture, Tourism in 2013

Agriculture and Tourism, in St. Lucia, will soon regain some economic activity in 2013, according to the International Monetary Fund. 

The International Monetary Fund, which recently concluded its Article IV Consultation on St. Lucia states that "[a]ctivity is expected to regain some momentum in 2013, with an anticipated recovery in agriculture from a three‑year downturn, a pick-up in tourism, and a recent fiscal stimulus that may provide some support for economic activity... St Lucia has weathered the difficult post-crisis environment, becoming the largest economy in the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union (ECCU).”

The tabulated data projects that the country's real GDP should increase by 1.1 percent in 2013, compared to a decrease of 0.4 percent in 2012.

Actions needed to regain some economic activity in 2013, according to the International Monetary Fund:

• strengthen the education system;
• improve the business climate, including through a more efficient public sector;
• increase efficiency and reducing costs in product, labour and financial markets;
• pursue deeper regional integration

An Online Resource for Food and Agriculture

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) provides information that is geared towards fighting hunger and achieving food security. The FAO Country Profiles and Mapping Information System information retrieval tool complies data on "global activities in agriculture and development in a single area and catalogues it exclusively by country. Th[is] system offers decision-makers around the world a fast and reliable way to access country-specific information without the need to search individual databases and systems". This online site categorizes its data under two headings: 

1. Natural resources, economics, agriculture, fisheries and aquaculture, forestry, and technical cooperation.

2. Global issues ranging from biotechnology to climate change and food security.

FAO - an online resource also provides its readers with a Knowledge Forum (Good Practices; Knowledge Networks and Communities; Knowledge Management and Gender); Statistics; and Various Publications of pertinent issues.

The Committee of Forestry (COFO) 2012 held their World Forest Week in September - Forests:  a green pathway for human development.The following key topics were highlighted at this event:

• Integrating forests with environmental and land use policies at all levels
• Forests, trees  and people together in a living landscape: A key to rural development
• Broadening the financial basis for sustainable forest management: wood and non-wood products, services, innovations, markets, investments and international instruments
• Sound information and knowledge base for better policies and good governance

 

Connecting Caribbean Farmers Via Radio and Web 2.0

According to Roderick St Clair,  the host of 'Eat Caribbean radio programme', "[f]armers do not always have time to read booklets and guides, however useful they are. But they can listen to the radio while they work and hear from people just like them, experiencing, and solving, the same problems".

His talk show, broadcasting since 2011, focuses on the local farmers - their success stories and challenges  as well as the Agriculture Value Chain - fulfilling the needs of the buyers, that is the supermarkets and exporters.

Guest speakers/advisers range from expert farmers to Agriculture Value Chain members. Farmers now have the opportunity to seek advise from each guest adviser.With this opportunity they have access to answers pertaining to the following topics: banking, transport issues, and concern buyers. Besides the regular advise from the guest speakers, the programme also provides training courses such as how to work in and develop a value chain.

To read more on connecting our local farmers, click the following title: Talk about shared experience

Joining ICT and Agriculture

Developing Countries are witnessing a widespread use of technology in the Agriculture sector. Technological applications are now being used to share information and best practices within the farming community.

Kelly-Ann Phillips, a business development consultant, explains that “[t]raditionally, agriculture is not a sector that was associated with technology per se. As technology consultants, we see that the development of every sector is dependent on ICT. We have seen ways that farmers and persons in agriculture can benefit from technology. So thats why we’re expanding it to the agricultural sector as well, to let people know how you can leverage technology even in the field of agriculture to make your business more productive.”

To read more on this development: In St Lucia, Joining ICT and Agriculture

OECS Agriculture: Web 2.0 Learning Workshop

INFOCOMM Technologies Limited provided OECS with their first Web 2.0 Learning Opportunities workshop in St. Lucia. The training course took place from November 26th to 30th 2012. The training session taught participants the following tools:

1. Development of content via the use of wikis and Google Docs
2. Online Mapping
3. Voice over Internet
4. Professional and corporate social networking, such as LinkedIn and Facebook

OECS plans to embrace this program fully to ensure the advancement of the OECS Member States ICT skills. Another session of the Web 2.0 Learning Opportunities workshop in St. Lucia to be held in February, 2013.
For more information on this event: OECS Agriculture Stakeholders advance ICT skills through Web 2.0 Learning Opportunities workshop.

Climate-Smart Agriculture

Due to the increasing demand on food by the growing population, the Caribbean is currently focusing on 'Climate-Smart Agriculture'. This new initiative seeks to provide information about the weather and climate to farms with the expectations of increasing agricultural productivity.

To read more on Climate-Smart Agriculture within the region, please click the following link to the article called "In Caribbean, Climate-Smart Agriculture Bolsters Farm Production": http://www.ipsnews.net/2013/01/in-caribbean-climate-smart-agriculture-bolsters-farm-production/

WEB 2.0 Capacity Workshops

Group 3: The Rebels November 29th 2012

Members:
Joshua Vernor
Gordan Cazaubon
Millines Herman
Charis Auguste-Powell

“So you thought you knew it all, huh?” was what came to my mind when I watched a video presentation called Social Media Revolution 2012 during the workshop. To be honest, I felt like a fossil at the moment. I thought I knew it all, being young and energetic but I had no idea of the impact of this workshop, until Wednesday Evening.

That evening I visited our newly constructed Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/pages/Veterinary-Livestock-Services-Division and saw 22 likes on the page and I got excited. Then I went to view our blog http://sluvetservices.blogspot.com/ and saw a comment. These pages were less than 24 hours old and they had already received an international audience.

Web 2.0 Learning Opportunity Workshop was amazing. It was everything a consultant ‘robbed’ from our pockets and more.

I felt that this training was long overdue. Dropbox will make my life so much easier since I always forget my pen drive. I really wish Google Map was more advanced. It would probably help me find my pen drive. Well we still have to wait for that feature although there are ways to track your cars and phones with satellite systems.

Being in the field of Agriculture we need to keep abreast with trends, technologies, etc., and the use of Google Reader made this possible for me. I used it from the first day it was formally introduced, and I believe that my coworkers will like this too.

How many times do we have to sign and re-submit reports? Not anymore thanks, to Google Drive. This is a tool secretaries would love to teach the Permanent Secretaries to use, and it would save our planet a lot of trees.

Being a field officer, I like my work to be Wiki; speed is a must in this day and age. It was unfortunate when our internet was down during the workshop. It slowed down the mood of Workshop, but thanks to but Training team our spirits stayed up. Could we get a “WIKI BUTTON” for Lime St. Lucia Ltd? They are truly limited.

I came into this workshop as a zero, and am leaving as a nine. The ten, I will be given after I pass on this training to my department. Your time spent was not spent in vain. It was energetic, empowering, fun, in other words amazing.

In closing we would like to thank you for everything, Team Web 2.0.