The keys to Grenadaβs newest Tissue CultureΒ Laboratory will be officially handed over to the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands Forestry and Marine Resources on Thursday March 27, 2025.
The almost One-Million-Dollar project funded under Phase 8 of the Grenada China TechnicalΒ Agricultural Cooperation is aimed at enhancing tissue culture operations at Propagation StationsΒ throughout Grenada.
Minister for Agriculture and Lands Forestry and Marine Resources, Hon Lennox Andrews, saysΒ operations at the facility will address the growing challenges faced by the Ministry and farmers onΒ a whole in terms of the consistent propagation and availability of plantlets.
βWith this new Tissue Culture Laboratory, the Ministry of Agriculture can now better positionΒ itself to serve farmers by the mere fact that our propagation stations will now make available betterΒ quality, more disease resistant and a wider range and volume of plantlets to farmers of this nation,βΒ Minister Andrews is quoted as saying.
Construction of the Laboratory at the Mirabeau Propagation Station commenced in SeptemberΒ 2024 and to date the project is estimated to have cost more than Seven Hundred Thousand Dollars.
Phase 8 of the Grenada China Technical Agricultural Cooperation was signed between the MinistryΒ of Agriculture and Lands and the Peopleβs Republic of China on May 10, 2023.
Chief Agronomist in the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands Forestry and Marine Resources,Β Allison Haynes, has addressed concerns about the labβs potential underutilisation, assuring thatΒ efforts will be made to ensure farmers fully benefit from its resources.
βWe are taking all the required measures to guarantee the building is utilised to its full potential.Β We will be recruiting ten employees, five being technicians. They will include a head tissue cultureΒ lab technician, with an assistant, and three propagator attendants. Together these individuals willΒ be responsible for micro propagation of plantlets and hardening of plants in the nursery. Banana,Β plantain, pineapple, root crops, spices and ornamentals will be targeted in a phased approach,βΒ Haynes says.
She notes that all provisions for the lab will be made through yearly budgetary allocations. Grenada has been without a functional Tissue Culture Laboratory for approximately two decades.
The ceremony will also see the handover of keys to various ancillary projects, including the SmallΒ Agricultural Machinery Station, Bamboo Weaving Workshop, Water Reservoir, Pump House, andΒ more, all built at the Chinese Agricultural Mission Farm in La Sagesse, St. David.
The Government is committed to increasing availability of disease resistant local planting materialΒ to farmers. This initiative aligns with the OECS FAST Strategy, endorsed by Grenada and otherΒ OECS member countries, as an urgent action plan to promote food security, self-reliance, andΒ agricultural development in the region.
