Caribbean Week of Agriculture kicks off in Guyana
Georgetown, Guyana. October 10, 2013 (IICA). The President of the Republic of Guyana, Donald Ramotar, ministers of agriculture from the Caribbean and representatives of the main technical assistance organizations working in the region inaugurated Caribbean Week of Agriculture (CWA), an annual event held with the support of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) and the Caribbean Community Secretariat (CARICOM).
Senior agricultural officials are meeting at the Guyana International Conference Centre in Georgetown to reach agreement on actions designed to improve food and nutrition security in the Caribbean, the adaptation of agriculture to climate change, and the integration of small-scale producers into markets, among other issues.
The CWA began on October 4 and will conclude on October 12, although the official inauguration took place on Wednesday in the presence of the ministers and other senior officials.
The event is expected to lead to specific requests for national or regional-level cooperation on agricultural issues; hence it has major implications for IICA.
The Government of Guyana organized this year’s activity. In bringing the inaugural ceremony to a close, the President of Guyana, Donald Ramotar, noted that agriculture had an unparalleled opportunity to grow, because, with the global population set to reach nine billion by 2050, it would be up to the agricultural sector to meet the world’s needs - mainly food, but also energy.
Leslie Ramsammy, Minister of Agriculture of Guyana, suggested that the Caribbean countries had sufficient human and natural resources to produce more and better food, which would enable them to reduce their huge import bills. He added that more investment was required but, above all, the countries needed to work together to make agriculture a key element in the region’s future.
The minister’s remarks were part of his address to a large group of agricultural students from Saint Kitts and Nevis who were invited to take part in the CWA.
The Director General of IICA, Víctor M. Villalobos, emphasized the need to forge partnerships to achieve common objectives. He explained that some of the primary objectives of the Institute’s projects in the Caribbean, working in tandem with other organizations, were to improve food security and increase the opportunities for smallholders to develop their operations.
The purpose of the CWA, the most important agricultural event in the Caribbean, is to draw attention to the challenges facing the region’s agriculture and the opportunities for developing the sector, and to enable decision-makers and other stakeholders to engage in dialogue and agree on ways to promote the activity.
The CWA also provides the backdrop to the meeting of the Alliance for the Sustainable Development of Agriculture and the Rural Milieu (often referred to simply as “The Alliance”), comprised of representatives of the ministries of agriculture, the private sector, academia, and institutions such as IICA, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI), among others.
Before the inaugural ceremony, Alliance members shared experiences with regard to agricultural trade and the transportation of agricultural goods, discussed ways of meeting the local demand for fresh products, and received information about the possibilities of developing aquaculture in the Caribbean.
Delegates from Tonga and Samoa (Oceania) took part in the meeting of The Alliance as special guests. The Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries of Samoa, Lautafi S. Purcell, explained to the Caribbean ministers the similarities between the two regions, and identified possible areas of cooperation, such as organic agriculture, the transportation of agricultural products, and adaptation to climate change and the reduction of vulnerability to its effects.
Más información:
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