Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Tourism, Investments and Aviation, the Hon. Chester Cooper was the keynote speaker at a graduation ceremony at the Bahamas Agriculture and Marine Science Institute (BAMSI) recently. While there he also visited the new piggery farm on the Andros campus.
BAMSI Executive Chairman, Sen. Hon. Tyrel Young said the new initiative will support the local market. “You have a lot of farmers throughout The Bahamas who can’t afford to bring in these breeds, these pure breeds, from other countries. So BAMSI took on the initiative to bring these in and then grow them out and distribute them at a lower cost to farmers to try and assist them with their farm and food security basically will be the end goal.”
Minister Cooper said, “over the years we have grown pigs all across the islands of The Bahamas. We’ve done so in a very organic way and in order to continue to advance agriculture in The Bahamas and across the islands we need BAMSI so that we’re doing it to best practice, we’re doing it most efficiently and we’re able to significantly reduce the level of import of pork across the country. So as you would imagine as consumers everything from bacon to ham and everything in between, pork products. And if we’re able to do this successfully, we would be able to reduce the level of foreign exchange leaving the country.”
The new piggery unit currently houses sixteen animals.
