News

The Ministry of Blue and Green Economy, Agriculture and National Food Security now has an additional tool to assist in data management and strategic planning for the cocoa sector with the recent handing over of a Cocoa Financial Model presented to the Ministry at the start of a training workshop organized by the Cocoa Cluster Development Project of Dominica for extension staff, data and information officers, finance agents, farmers and other cocoa stakeholders who will be putting this financial tool to use.

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Blue and Green Economy, Agriculture and National Food Security, Dr. Kyra Paul, received the document from Francine Baron, CEO of the Climate Resilience Execution Agency for Dominica (CREAD), the organization which developed the model.

The Permanent Secretary says these initiatives are geared at encouraging farmers to venture in the cocoa industry.

“Following Hurricane Maria, the Ministry sought to restore the Agriculture sector and one the project we introduced was the cocoa expansion project building on the Plant Propagation Programme of the Ministry. We have a target of twenty five thousand propagated cocoa plants on an annual basis and that is being done through our extension programme. We are very happy to partner with CREAD as CREAD was very instrumental in developing this cocoa financial model. We are aware that we have quite a few challenges within the Agriculture sector to ensure that the sector is resilient to climate change impacts but also to meet some of the market challenges as well as trade challenges.  The Cocoa Financial model is very critical in providing the support to the Ministry’s programme,” Dr. Paul stated.

Dr. Paul says the cocoa financial model is very critical in helping with coordination and financial planning.

“We are very happy to receive this model on behalf of the Ministry and I assure you that it will be integrated into the programmes of the Ministry including our Farmr Field’s School Programme,” Dr. Paul added.