2015 International Cooperation and Development Fund Annual Report

Operations

Since 2005, St. Kitts and Nevis has

combined the agriculture industry

with tourism in hopes that the tourist

industry will become an engine for

economic development. However,

restricted by a single crop agricultural

structure, farmers rely on a limited

selection of expensive imported

fertilizers and lack for concepts and

techniques associated with the use

of fertilizers and safe application of

pesticides. In addition, there is no

harvest data monitoring and no pre-

market pesticide residue detection

system. This has led to the need to

import more than a US$40 million

worth of agricultural products every

year to supply the needs of tourist

hotels and supermarket chain stores.

To solve this long-standing

problem, the government of St. Kitts

and Nevis proposed this project,

hoping that it could help raise

agricultural yields and quality, and

thereby improve the agriculture

industry and reduce the foreign

exchange losses from agricultural

imports.

The First Rapid Pesticide

Residue Detection System in

the Caribbean

To guarantee agricultural safety,

this project draws inspiration from

Good Agricultural Practices (GAP)

and first introduced Taiwan's Rapid

Bioassay for Pesticide Residues

(RBPR) technology and Vegetable

and Fruit Safety Mark standards

to help St. Kitts and Nevis create a

rapid pesticide residue detection

system. This would be a first for the

Caribbean region and of landmark

significance. Secondly, the project

promoted an understanding of

Integrated Pest Management (IPM),

carrying out environmentally friendly

field management. In addition, the

project enhanced agricultural crop

quality and stabilized crop yields,

crop varieties and crop supply

through water resource management,

improved soil analysis, promotion of

compost making, and the rational

application of fertilizers.

The laboratory for soil fertility

analysis and RBPR were put into

operation in July 2015.

The government of St.

Kitts and Nevis has

promoted legislation for

the Vegetable and Fruit

Safety Mark by setting

up a demonstration

farmers’ organization

and conducting project

briefings to increase

farmers’ willingness to

participate and increase

confidence among distributors and

consumers, as well as popularized a

mark certification system. In addition,

the project has built a compost

demonstration site and composting

stations for farmers, begun compost-

making and fertilizing experiments,

and collected the relevant data for

cost-effectiveness analysis.

Following the promotion of the

Vegetable and Fruit Safety Mark,

farmers will get in the habit of

recording the kind of pesticide they

are using, frequency of use, and time

of last pesticide use. During the twice

weekly field inspection visits, the

project team and St. Kitts and Nevis

agriculture extension personnel will

help farmers to identify various plant

diseases and insect pest damage,

make on - s i t e d i agnoses and

provide suggestions on prevention

and cure. In this way, farmers can

accumulate firsthand information

and control the outbreak of disease

and pest damage to facilitate the

comprehensive promotion of a

traceability system in the future. It is

anticipated that 30 percent of local

fruits, vegetables and upland crops

will be screened for

pes t i c i des p r i o r t o

reaching the market,

and farmers who have

received guidance will

see an average of 10

percent growth in per-

unit area crop yields.

Percentage of crops

undergoing pesticide residue

screening

St. Kitts and Nevis

Vegetable, Fruit and Upland Crop Quality

and Safety Improvement Project

Case Study