AGRICULTURE, LANDS, FISHERIES & BARBUDA AFFAIRS

Participants of this year’s Homes, Families and Gardens Festival competition and other individuals continue to garner useful information that would assist them in the proper management of their gardens.

The Community Development Division in the Ministry of Social Transformation hosted an agronomy workshop Wednesday at the Dunbars Experimental Station in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture.

The one-hour session was facilitated by Agronomists Jemal Ralph and Dennis Roberts.  Agronomy covers a broad range of topics such as plant breeding, pest and weed control, irrigation, soil fertility and crop rotation on which participants were able to gather information.

In addition, they were further educated on the purpose of the Dunbars Experimental Station, which according to Ralph, is responsible for carrying out experiments on new chemicals being introduced, new varieties of crops and germination tests among others.

During the month of August, several other workshops were held to include one on horticulture facilitated by George Purcell at Hortico and another on garden arrangement with Barbara Japal and Kath Trafton from the Antigua and Barbuda Horticultural Society.

Another workshop on plant protection will also be organised.

Registration for the Community Development Division’s sixth annual Homes, Families and Gardens Festival competition ends on September 30. It is being held under the theme “Think beautification for the nation’s health and wealth”.