48 Eighteen young farmers showcased poultry and livestock production skills on Wednesday after completing an eight-week IICA Youth Farm training programme at the Alleyne School. An open day marked the culmination of the intensive programme, with eight participants completing the poultry production course and another ten receiving training in livestock production. Poultry production instructor Ryan Barrow said participants gained practical experience while working towards a National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) in General Poultry Production Level Two. Barrow said the poultry participants raised more than 100 broilers and were also exposed to layer production, including collecting eggs. Participants also received exposure outside the classroom through visits to Gale’s Hatcheries and a farm in St Lucy. The programme, led by IICA, was conducted in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, the TVET Council Barbados and Gale’s Hatcheries, with other agricultural businesses also supporting the initiative since it began in 2012. You Might Be...

11 The Government of Saint Lucia will guarantee a US$20 million financing facility between the Saint Lucia Development Bank (SLDB) and Taiwan Eximbank aimed at expanding affordable housing opportunities for low- and middle-income households. The agreement was signed on Tuesday at the SLDB’s headquarters in Castries and forms part of the government’s broader strategy to address the country’s housing shortage. The facility is expected to improve access to long-term mortgage financing, particularly for first-time homeowners and people traditionally underserved by conventional lending. In his 2026-2027 Budget Address, Prime Minister Philip J Pierre said his administration would continue pursuing partnerships with the private sector to help reduce the housing deficit. “My administration will continue to seek private partnerships with credible private sector businesses to help reduce the housing deficit in our country,” Pierre said. In 2025, the SLDB approved about $11.5 million in concessionary housing financing as part of efforts to...

85 Barbadians may have to pay more for electricity in the short term as the country transitions to renewable energy, Barbados Chamber of Commerce and Industry council member and former Barbados Light & Power chief executive Stephen Worme has warned. Worme said additional investment would be required to accommodate increasing amounts of renewable energy, while existing conventional generating capacity would have to be maintained to ensure the stability and reliability of the electricity grid. “There will definitely be a time where we are going to be requiring equipment to actually provide the renewable energy, but we need to maintain some of the existing equipment to make sure that the transition goes smoothly,” he said. As a result, consumers could face an increase in electricity costs, although Worme said it was too early to determine the extent. “There will potentially be an increase in costs. How much it will be, we...

0 Young people across Barbados are set to gain access to new development programmes after 10 faith-based organisations became the first recipients of funding under the government’s $5m grant programme. The organisations were named on Thursday following the submission of 26 proposals to the Ministry of Labour, Social Security and the Third Sector earlier this year, after the launch of the initiative. The first group of grant recipients consists of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgetown, Gospel Lighthouse, United Church of America Inc., Melchizedek Ministries, Kingdom First International Church Inc., Combined Faith Christian Sports Evangelism Ministry, New Testament Church of God Barbados, Methodist Church of Barbados, East Caribbean Conference of Seventh-day Adventists and Kingdom Life Ministries. Minister of the Third Sector Colin Jordan urged young people to make the most of the opportunities that will emerge from the programmes. Ministry of Labour, Social Security and the Third Sector Colin Jordan....

104 Searchlight newspaper in St Vincent and the Grenadines is set to cease publication next month, becoming the latest established Caribbean news outlet to halt operations amid mounting financial and structural pressures on the regional media industry. After 31 years of continuous publication, the newspaper will publish its final print edition and pause its digital editions on September 25, as parent company Interactive Media Limited reviews the future direction of the operation. The announcement comes during a particularly difficult period for Caribbean media, following the closure of Trinidad and Tobago’s Newsday and Guyana’s Stabroek News earlier this year, and regional digital news platform Loop News in 2025. Searchlight, which began publication in 1995, said its decision came against the backdrop of significant changes in the global media industry, including declining print circulation and advertising revenue, rising operating costs and the continued movement of audiences and advertisers towards digital platforms. The...

6 Massive flash floods in a border area of Nepal and China on Wednesday killed at least 98 people and left hundreds missing, including foreign tourists and workers. Nepal’s prime minister’s office reported at least 95 deaths, while China’s state broadcaster CCTV said a mudslide in Tibet’s Gyirong County near the border killed at least three people and left 265 missing. Officials in Nepal said 403 people, including 341 foreign nationals, were reported missing. Among them were 133 Indians on pilgrimage to Mount Kailash in Tibet, along with nationals from the United States, Australia, Britain and Canada. At least 62 Nepalis were also missing in the Gosaikunda Lake area in Rasuwa, while 28 police officers were unaccounted for. The flooding destroyed villages, roads and hydropower projects, prompting authorities to warn residents to stay away from several rivers. “We have asked both India and China to help us with the rescue...

80 More than 900 people who invigilated this year’s CXC examinations are awaiting payment, with the Ministry of Education Transformation aiming to clear all verified claims by mid-September but warning that disputed cases could remain unresolved until November. Several affected workers, including unemployed people who supervised the May and June CSEC and CAPE exams, say the delay has left them struggling to meet household expenses and buy school supplies ahead of the new academic year. The Ministry of Education Transformation said payments had started, but claims must be checked and audited before money can be released. Permanent Secretary Kim Belle said more than 900 invigilators, supervisors and examiners had submitted claims, with some individuals generating multiple claims. “The exams that we are doing the invigilator payments for are for the May and June exams, so the claims normally start to come in during July after the exams have been completed,”...

4 The government is seeking more reliable markets for local farmers, with Agriculture Minister Dr Shantal Munro-Knight saying purchase agreements with major retailers will be expanded  to help boost production and exports. Munro-Knight also said currently, there are more than 50 agreements to purchase produce from small farmers through the Barbados Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation’s (BADMC) Farmers Enfranchisement and Empowerment Drive (FEED) programme. ​She was speaking to Barbados TODAY against the backdrop of the reopening of Massy Stores Worthing in Christ Church earlier this month and Prime Minister Mia Mottley’s call for agreements to purchase farmers’ produce to become a formal part of supermarket operations.  Mottley, speaking at the reopening, said farmers could not be expected to increase production based solely on the possibility that supermarkets would purchase their crops. She also announced that the government would provide two million dollars every quarter to support arrangements. The BADMC and...

17 Mark Maloney and Dane Skeete shared the honours at the Barbados Rally Club’s Double-Header Summer Sprint on August 23, each recording the fastest time in one direction.  Maloney defeated Dane Skeete by eight-tenths of a second in the first run from Kendal in St John to Ellesmere in St George, but Skeete pipped Maloney to the post by just eight-hundredths in the reverse run.  Forty-six cars contested the seventh and eighth rounds of the BRC Driver’s & Class Championship, while producing some standout performances. Among them was top two-wheel-drive finisher Mark-Anthony Hinkson, who finished inside the top 10 in both directions. Before the competition began, a minute’s silence was observed in the service area at Colleton Plantation Yard, St John, in memory of Dave Crawford, former Motoring Club Barbados Inc chairman Glyne Greaves and Harold ‘Doc’ Morley, who died in recent weeks. At the finish, Maloney said: “I know...

149 Prime Minister Mia Mottley has announced that basic water rate relief for affected St Lucy residents will continue until a new filtration system is installed, after production and supply chain delays pushed back the project. The relief had been due to end in September, but Mottley said Government would continue to honour its commitment while work at the Barbados Water Authority’s (BWA) Alleynedale facility is completed. “We made a commitment that we were going to resolve this issue,” Mottley said during a site update on Tuesday. “It is not yet where we want it, but it is significantly better than it was. Because of the difficulties in that company’s production capacity, plus the supply chain disruptions, it has pushed us back to receiving those containers in September or October.” Addressing the extension of the basic rate relief, the Prime Minister added: “The Ministry of Finance had written to the...