Who Really Started the Morocco Fertilizer Program? Giving Credit where it was Earned and is Due

A recent Cabinet update from the Government Information Service (GIS), dated Wednesday, September 9, 2026, announced that Antigua and Barbuda had received 4,000 bags of fertilizer from the Kingdom of Morocco — described as "the largest shipment since bilateral cooperation began in 2018."  

The release credits current Agriculture Minister Anthony Smith's Ministry with distributing the shipment to local crop farmers through its Extension Division.  However, the framing deliberately omits an important piece of the story: this program did not begin in 2018, and it did not begin under Anthony Smith.

Rather, the Morocco–Antigua and Barbuda fertilizer donation program was established as an initiative by the late Hilson Baptiste, Minister of Agriculture in the United Progressive Party (UPP) administration.

During his tenure, “Brother B,” as he was affectionately called by all locals, spearheaded the groundwork for agricultural-cooperation agreements with the Kingdom of Morocco.  It was he who laid the framework for the partnership, which continues to provide critical aid to Antigua and Barbuda even now, decades later; and this initiative was reported in the lower house of parliament and recorded in the Hansard.

Minister Baptiste’s early efforts ensured that farmers received badly needed inputs to combat soil challenges and food insecurity, long before the current administration's cabinet updates began the deceit of touting the program as a fresh achievement.

Local agriculture commentators have put it plainly: "This fertilizer handout isn't new — Hilson Baptiste did this already." 

It is interesting to note that the current administration has omitted Arthur Nibbs’ tenure as minister of Agriculture from its distortion of this history. However, successive position-holders – including Ambassador Samantha Marshall, MP E.P. Chet Greene and now, MP Smith – have continued to facilitate and distribute the same multi-container Moroccan fertilizer donations. 

These recurring shipments generally consist of thousands of 100-pound bags spanning different nutrient strengths that are distributed to registered crop farmers, backyard gardeners, and schools across both Antigua and Barbuda.

In other words, what began as a UPP initiative under Minister Baptiste evolved into a recurring national program that has simply been managed across political administrations since.

The September 9 Cabinet update highlighted three points about the most recent delivery:

That 4,000 bags of fertilizer were received from the Kingdom of Morocco — the largest single shipment since "bilateral cooperation began in 2018";

Direct distribution to local crop farmers is underway through the Ministry of Agriculture's Extension Division;

The shipment “complements other initiatives,” including 75 acres allocated to youth and women farmers and a US$9 million project for dams, water-catchment ponds, and other soil and water conservation infrastructure.

“Larger shipment or not, the underlying program is not new, and it is not the current Administration's creation,” insists former UPP Minister Harold Lovell.  “It is the continuation of a partnership Minister Baptiste built with the Kingdom of Morocco years earlier – one that has outlasted several changes in the Agriculture Ministry's leadership." 

“Crediting a 2018 start date or crediting the program to whoever happens to be holding the portfolio when a shipment lands, obscures where the initiative actually began,” he adds. “We must recognize that history is not about diminishing the current Ministry's work in distributing the fertilizer; rather, it is about giving credit where it is due.”

At Minister Baptiste’s funeral in 2025, tributes and praises were rained on him not only by Ministry of Agriculture's staff but by regional and international Agriculture organizations in recognition of his passion, hard work, and achievements in the field.

“Together, all of them who followed nah make one Brother B,” said one crop farmer at the time.  

Meanwhile, farmers and other stakeholders are asking about the status of the 25,000 acres of arable land in Venezuela that were allotted to Antigua and Barbuda for crop and livestock production in 2024.

Noting that the Ministry of Agriculture was forced to cancel this year’s Piango Fest – at which pineapples and mangoes and their value-added products are usually featured – critics say they expected the government to have capitalized already on the Venezuela agreement.  And as imported-food prices continue to rocket amid unfavourable weather conditions, they add that they are expecting more from the Administration than “talk and poor-boasting.”