SAINT KITTS AND NEVIS - SAINT-KITTS-ET-NEVIS - SAINT KITTS Y NEVIS

The Honourable Denzil L. Douglas, Prime Minister of Saint Kitts and Nevis

The Delegation of Saint Kitts and Nevis welcomes this tremendous opportunity today to participate in this World Food Summit. This is a history-making event, and we are very pleased to be able to contribute to the global effort to revise new approaches and innovative strategies of ensuring food security for all our peoples and to intensify our efforts to eradicate hunger.

Like other delegates before me, I wish to congratulate you upon your selection to preside over this historic event. Also my Delegation wishes to commend the Director-General, his staff, and the membership of FAO for this remarkable initiative for the foresight and hard work involved in planning, coordinating and hosting this most important Summit. FAO, through its kind invitation and financial assistance, has helped to ensure the participation of Saint Kitts and Nevis and I would like to place on record our sincere gratitude. May I, with respect, make reference to the message of faith, the message of hope and encouragement given to us by His Holiness the Pope and to the moving address by His Excellency the President of the Republic of Italy, which should serve as tremendous inspiration to all of us taking part in this World Food Summit.

The world community is fully aware that hunger and famine are widespread throughout the globe. We see painful examples of the reality of developing countries which live with incidences of chronic malnutrition, and under-nutrition resulting in starvation and in death. This phenomenon is further exacerbated by spiralling population growth. If all this were not enough, man's practice of cruelty and inhumanity to his fellow man guarantees a similarly endless flow of refugees, of men, women and children, of old and young, driven away from the place they call home, forced to forage wherever they can to find food, when they can. This Summit for me signifies a timely recognition that we must work to reverse these trends. We must also work to improve the quality of life for the many people worldwide who are so adversely effected by such phenomena and give them greater hope and greater success in the future.

We have seen evidence of the corrosive power of hunger and undernutrition and the extent to which such elements can contribute to undermining national security, social stability and human growth anywhere. We must commit to stemming such a possibility. This is an important reason to propel us. It also explains why Saint Kitts and Nevis welcomes, with overwhelming optimism and hope, the convening of this Summit on Food Security and a broad participation here evident.

To us in Saint Kitts and Nevis, food security means access to an adequate food supply that assures us of productive and healthy citizens. In Saint Kitts and Nevis, food security suggests a minimum and ready supply of nutritious food for all households and that this supply is continuous and stable. In a society where all members of the society can afford or have the financial and economic means to fulfil the demand for food, should this fail, governments should be pleased to intervene. This has been practised in the past in Saint Kitts and Nevis and we shall be happy to continue, but also we will work to help our people to help themselves.

The agricultural sector of The Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis continues to make a significant contribution to the national economy. Agricultural exports account for approximately 50 percent of the merchandise exports and industry employs 20 percent of the labour force. The performance of certain crops and livestock, forestry and fisheries has experienced growth potential with an increase of 5 percent in 1995. This performance is an indication of the Government's strong commitment to the process of agricultural diversification.

In his World Food Day message on 16 October 1996, the Director-General referred to the need for, and I quote "investment in infrastructure, institutions and research, for sustainable growth in agriculture". This is particularly applicable to small island states like Saint Kitts and Nevis with limited land supply and the lack of natural resources. We must find new and innovative ways of producing food and ensuring adequate access so that all of our people can feed themselves.

We do realise that sustainable growth in agriculture is fundamental to food security and to the eradication of poverty. In this context, it is important that we address critically the factors which impinge on our efforts to feed our people.

In the last few years, Saint Kitts and Nevis and indeed the whole Caribbean region, has suffered from the recurring incidences of natural disasters, including hurricanes and the infestation of pests which have wreaked havoc on our agriculture industry. In 1985, and again in 1989, Saint Kitts and Nevis endured the full effects of hurricane Hugo and hurricanes, Louise and Marilyn, respectively. The country sustained substantial damage to the agricultural sector; food crops and vegetables, as well as sugar cane were destroyed. The hurricanes destroyed infrastructural works, damaging land sites for fishing boats, damaging roads, electricity and telephone installations. In addition, severe erosion and other types of environmental damage occurred.

In 1978, the Tropical Bont Tick (Amblyomma variegatum) and its associated skin disease, dermatophilosis, visited Saint Kitts and Nevis. This has resulted in a severe loss of animals especially cattle. As a result, many farmers ceased livestock production.

In 1995, the Pink Mealybug pest surfaced in Saint Kitts and Nevis. This pest is known to effect up to 130 species of plant life. In Saint Kitts and Nevis, and some other Caribbean countries, food crops and agricultural exports are being devastated by this pest. Consequently, the Government has enlisted the cooperation of several regional and international organisations in its efforts to contain the factors which mitigate against our achieving food security.

The scarcity of arable land to an expanding farming sub-sector is another constraint in our attempt to feed our people. The Government is actively encouraging and promoting this farming sub-sector by leasing government-owned land in economic-lot sizes to small farmers.

We pay tribute to organizations, institutions and agencies, such as FAO, the Caribbean Agriculture Research and Development Institute, the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation and Agriculture, the French Technical Mission, the Republic of China on Taiwan, the European Union, the United States Department of Agriculture, the United States Agency for International Development and the Australian Agency for International Development, among others, who all contributed significantly toward development of agriculture in Saint Kitts and Nevis. The collaborative efforts of these fine institutions and governments have resulted in the following measures being undertaken:

Firstly, the French Technical Mission, the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation in Agriculture and the Government of Saint Kitts and Nevis provided farmers with ferro-cement tanks which can store up to 12 000 gallons of water. This would ease considerably the uncertainty of having to depend on rain for watering their crops. This initiative does have its drawbacks, however, in that there must be a regular supply of water to the farm for the tanks to be kept full to capacity. This is being ensured through an agreement signed between the French Government and my own Government in Saint Kitts and Nevis. If this irrigation programme proves viable, it would provide a ready supply of water to all farmers in Saint Kitts and Nevis.

The Saint Kitts and Nevis Government also commends the Kuwaiti Fund for Arab Economic Development for funding the Kuwait drinking project in Saint Kitts and Nevis. This ensures that households have better access to continuous supplies of drinking water.

From these various ameliorative programmes, the implications of the lack of funding to continue these programmes are evident. We hereby appeal to countries with the requisite expertise and to donor agencies, to lend the necessary assistance to small island states like Saint Kitts and Nevis in our efforts to achieve sustainable agricultural development. This, we believe, in turn will contribute significantly to the attainment of food security for all our people. We recognise that an environment must be created to facilitate efforts at the national, regional and international levels to eradicate poverty, hunger and diseases. Efforts must be made to prevent demarginalization of small island developing states like Saint Kitts and Nevis in the movement towards liberalization and globalization of the world economy.

There is no doubt that there is a definite need for increased international assistance to small island developing states like Saint Kitts and Nevis to develop inter alia, storage facilities and other adequate infrastructure. Efforts must coalesce in implementing long-term integrated programmes for disaster prevention and mitigation, for diversifying the agricultural base, for strengthening the basic elements of disaster preparedness, in investment, in physical infrastructure, in education, in employment and in income-generation.

In the meantime, we regret the decisions made to cut back on short-term assistance to us in terms of the school-feeding programme as well as the provision of assistance to help vulnerable groups such as expectant or nursing mothers, schoolchildren, the elderly, the chronically ill and the handicapped; these people we believe, need continued assistance. We therefore call for a serious re-examination of this policy decision by the World Food Programme.

The Delegation of Saint Kitts and Nevis sees the World Food Summit as a big step forward in the development of agriculture and food security. Our participation in this Summit underscores our interest in, and commitment to, the development of world food security.

In conclusion, I wish to thank the Italian Government for its kindness and for its hospitality. It is also rewarding for us to be here in Rome, a city so rich in history, so rich in tradition and so rich in culture. The symbolism of being here says to me that if we want future generations to look upon the past with praise, with satisfaction and with inspiration, we must begin today to plant the seeds and nurture them with commitment and hard work.

We have every confidence in the participants of this Summit, and we hereby pledge our full and unqualified support to the Rome Declaration on World Food Security and World Food Summit Plan of Action. It is our intention to continue to give top priority to the fight against hunger and malnutrition now and throughout the twenty-first century. I trust that the presence of the world community speaks for our collective commitment to finding solutions and as we return to our respective capitals, we will begin to put the necessary measures in place that will engender sustainable results.