I wish to congratulate Dr Christopher Tufton, on the fact that he is by far, the best performing minister in terms of the statistics that I know of. Domestic crop production is up by 20.6 per cent this year. Also, there has been an increase of over 20,000 tonnes of food produced over the corresponding period last year, for the months July to September.

However, the thing that really has me impressed is the reduction by more than 75 per cent of foods that can be produced locally that are imported. This to me is the single largest indicator that under Dr Tufton's watch, the farmers of this country are being more productive. The ministry has made it a point of duty to get more field officers out via the Rural Agricultural Development Authority and other means. This is good work and it deserves mention.

Dr Tufton is not the only one that deserves commendation; the ministry of health has finally responded to the crisis that was developing at the Blood Bank. As embarrassing as it was, they finally managed to get the 9,900 bags they needed to deal with the immediate needs of the blood bank.

I am etc.

Damion Heslop

damionheslop@yahoo.com