Another phase of the Australian Aid funded, Youth In Agriculture – Cocoa Farm School programme, commences with Orientation on Thursday 10th February.
The 13 participants from the northeast who registered will be introduced to the Farmer Field Concept, Team Building and Group Dynamics. There will also be a presentation on Covid by staff of the Health Promotion Unit.
In the subsequent 11 weeks, various topics including Land Selection and Preparation, Grafting, Pod Selection as well as business and Social Skills sessions will be covered.
The training is facilitated mainly by staff of the Ministry of Blue & Green Economy, Agriculture and National Food Security and other Divisions such as the Youth Development and Cooperative, DEXIA,, the Dominica Youth Business Trust, National Development Foundation among others.
Dominica is known for production of fine flavour cocoa. However, if the island is to overcome the setbacks caused by Hurricane Maria, continued production is necessary to help boost the economy. Accordingly, this project seeks:
To contribute to the development of the industry to create sustained employment
To train participants to produce quality cocoa to fulfill local market demand and for export.
By participating in this training programme, it is expected that young people will be motivated to cultivate and process cocoa as a form of employment and to pursue the related viable business opportunities in this lucrative worldwide industry.
