Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), José Graziano da Silva, arrived in this country at 11 p.m. Tuesday for a two-day official visit.
da Silva will meet with Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves for 90 minutes today – Wednesday — before holding a joint press conference.
He will meet with stakeholders in the agricultural sector at the Ministry of Agriculture conference room for one hour, beginning at 3:15 p.m.
He will then meet with Ministry of Agriculture, Saboto Caesar, for an hour.
On Thursday, the FAO director will visit the windward side of St. Vincent to view agriculture initiatives, namely the Plant Tissue Culture Laboratory at Orange Hill and the Arrowroot Factory
The visit comes on the heels of this country being among 38 nations recognised by the FAO in June for halving undernourishment, ahead of the 2015 target.
Gonsalves told reporters last month that he had invited da Silva to visit.
“I want him to meet some farmers, real flesh and blood farmers. I want him to see some of the roads on which we have to drive in the farming villages, the feeder roads. I want him to see that,” Gonsalves said.
“I want him to see how we do work on small farms … to see how people make living — how we have gotten to where we have gotten but yet how we need his help to do more, and the help of the international partners,” he further told reporters.
I am sure Gonsalves will only show him what he wants him to see. He will not be shown farmers sitting drunk in rum shops. He will not show him small children working the fields, he will not show him the farms that are reverting to bush.
He will not tell him about how the government have totally wrecked agriculture.
He will show him all the showcase projects done by another country, like at Orange Hill.
More lies.