The Minister of Agriculture highlighted the role the Institute played throughout 2014 in strengthening value chains and agrifood systems.
Dominica. In early June, the Dominica Office of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) presented its annual report to the national agricultural authorities.
Kent Coipel, IICA specialist in that country, stated that the technical cooperation actions developed over the past year have contributed to strengthening the institutional capacities in innovation of the public and private sectors.
According to Johnson Drigo, Minister of Agriculture of Dominica, agriculture in the country has benefited greatly from IICA’s contributions.
“Through the support IICA has provided in improving technical capacities, the sector has been able to improve its institutional capacities, strengthen its agricultural health and food safety system, and promote the development of value chains, which has strengthened the agrifood systems,” stated Drigo.
Coipel stated that the initiatives developed in 2014 had succeeded in strengthening the entrepreneurial capacities of women and young persons, who were encouraged to participate more actively in national agriculture.
In turn, the Minister underlined the importance of identifying market niches for organic products and developing agrotourism initiatives, as well as improving knowledge management for adaptation to climate change and sustainable use of natural resources.
“The government of Dominica will focus its efforts on increasing direct investments, ensuring that the market places more emphasis on production and on building an environment that will make agriculture more prosperous,” said Drigo.
More information:
kent.coipel@iica.int
