RADA

6 BUSINESS VIEW CARIBBEAN VOLUME 10, ISSUE 2 RURAL AGR I CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT AUTHOR I TY During the lockdown, we traversed the countryside to visit farmers and continue our extension services. And as such, despite the COVID pandemic, the agricultural sector has continued to post growth, enjoying seven consecutive quarters of growth, with the last quarterly growth being 17%. Business View Magazine: As acting head of RADA, are there any specific initiatives you have undertaken within RADA that you can say have positively impacted its performance? Winston Simpson: It was critical to look at our client needs and demands, and what we have, and see how best we could make it work for the nation. Starting from COVID and going forward, we ensured we ramped up relationships with input suppliers. We knew their inventories, farmer demands, and our landmass and created a charter service to ensure land preparation. We engaged and sensitized farmers on the need to produce. Knowing the crop cycles, we quickly put a budget together, which the Minister of Agriculture approved and gave us funding on time. The timeliness of this funding allowed us to operate within the crop cycles, yielding produce in a timely manner and realizing the excellent results we saw. Another factor that worked in our favor was utilizing our internal data, including demand and ecological and weather factors. We also relied on our team of extension officers, directors, and IT experts, which enhanced our technology. We got the information to the farmers through smartphones, text messages, and social media channels like Facebook and TikTok. Business View Magazine: With such a broad mandate, are any specific partners, vendors, or suppliers you’d like to mention as playing a critical role in helping RADA achieve its mandate? Winston Simpson: Before I mention our partners, I’d like to note that we’ve made some giant strides recently.