Mexican specialists advise Caribbean farmers on soil conservation

*The Director General of IICA (second from left) attended the first working session of the IMTA specialists with the participants from Trinidad and Tobago, held at the IICA Office in that country.*

Mexico City, October 31, 2014 (IICA). Specialists from the Mexican Institute of Water Technology (IMTA) are working with farmers in Trinidad and Tobago and in the Dominican Republic to develop a program aimed at conserving soil and water, at the river basin level, as part of a series of training events for countries in the Caribbean being promoted by the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA).

As the third stage of this training program gets under way, implemented by IICA and the Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock Farming, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food (SAGARPA) of Mexico, personnel from both institutions are visiting the Caribbean region to supervise the projects launched following the courses in Mexico.

The participants (farmers and agricultural professionals from the Caribbean) will implement 12 projects, adhering to the parameters established by the six Mexican academic institutions which provided training during the first two stages of the program.

The work in the Dominican Republic focuses on the Massacre river basin and other irrigated areas. In addition, in October projects will be launched, under the supervision of Mexican specialists, focusing on the reproductive management of sheep in Jamaica and Barbados, with advisors from the Universidad Autonoma de Chapingo, and on monitoring family agriculture projects, in St. Lucia and the Bahamas.

The Centro Regional de Servicios Integrados para la Agricultura Protegida (CRESIAP) will advise growers on the establishment of experimental centers for vegetable production in greenhouses in Trinidad and Tobago. In addition, it will be represented in Antigua and Barbuda from October 27 to November 2 to advise growers on the same topic

The Centro de Investigacion Cientifica de Yucatan (CICY) will support growers in Jamaica who participated in the program on the detection of Papaya Meleira Virus (PMeV), and others from Guyana in detecting the presence of the phytoplasma that causes lethal yellowing.

This initiative is the result of a technical cooperation agreement between SAGARPA and IICA, signed on April 29 in Yucatan during the Third Mexico-Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Summit.

The first and second stages of this cooperation program consisted of six courses, attended by 143 representatives of 15 Caribbean countries and the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI), who were trained by their Mexican counterparts.

The goal of the courses was to share experiences with an eye to developing the human resources that will promote a new type of agriculture in the Caribbean.

For further information:
franklin.marin@iica.int
ena.resendiz@iica.int