100 youths from the Cayo Central area participated in a week-long agricultural summer camp which introduced them to hands-on activities like horticulture, bee keeping and livestock management. The initiative was led by a collaboration between Minister of State Alex Balona and the Ministry of Agriculture. Here are the highlights from the camp.
Alex Balona, Minister of State in Agriculture:
"The reason why we did this week long summer camp is for you to learn about agriculture and a lot of times when people hear about agriculture they think about a tractor a machine but agriculture you can do it at home. I saw some of you taking some trays where you have some seedlings you will be transplanting some few days into the ground maybe a container if you live in town there is not much space but you can plant it in a container bucket that has been broken, you can fill it with dirt and put your cucumber or lettuce in it so we want you to go back home and practice what you learned during the course of this week."
Albert Guerra, Participant:
"There is a new worm, called the new screw worm which can infect animals such as cattle, sheep, goats and they eat live flesh out of animals and they slow down their medications."
"One thing that can make me come back next year is the agro processing I really liked how they showed us how to bake, cook and all the ingredients that you need to use and how to measure the measurements that they ask us to use."
Zilen Azueta, Participant:
"Well I have learned a lot about the animals and the bees, any favourite part was the animals mostly."
"So the animals they have different types of sheep and cattle and they have some that do not go well with our climate here where we live so they cross breed them and there are several sheep that they use for milk and meat."
