Caribbean Ministers of Agriculture are advised of IICA’s differentiated strategies for the region
Bridgetown, Barbados, 12 October 2018 (IICA). Caribbean Ministers of Agriculture attended a presentation in Barbados by the Director General of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), Manuel Otero. The head of this specialized agency for agricultural and rural development informed the Ministers about IICA’s differentiated strategies for the Caribbean region, to include the strengthening of strategic alliances, mobilization of human and financial resources, and improvements to increase the impact of existing programs, with a view to bolstering production of quality food and reducing imports.
In his remarks at the 15th Caribbean Week of Agriculture, which was attended by CARICOM (Caribbean Community) Ministers from the sector, Otero indicated that, “There are two regions of particular importance: Central America and the Caribbean. IICA will apply differentiated strategies in both regions, but in the case of the Caribbean, it will place greater emphasis on resilience considerations. A concrete example of this is the project to establish a Global Agricultural Resilience Center in Dominica”.
Otero also disclosed that the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and IICA will collaborate more closely in the region, which will result in more joint actions, primarily in the Eastern Caribbean.
In addition to contributing to the development of a more resilient and productive agriculture sector, another key area for IICA will be its work to enable greater harmonization of phytosanitary policies in the Caribbean, with a view to enhancing intraregional trade.
“Sixteen percent of Caribbean trade is intraregional. This should increase considerably, enabling production chains to gain traction, and certainly to benefit from new opportunities and better supplies”, said Otero. He pledged IICA’s full commitment to providing technical support for the stated objective of the Prime Minister of Barbados, the Honorable Mia Amor Mottley, which is to bring about a 25 percent reduction in her country’s food imports, which are a major burden on this Caribbean nation’s current account balance.
IICA gave its commitment to provide technical support to assist Barbados to substantially increase its sheep herds over the next few years, as well as its production of alternative sources of animal protein and root crops, tubers and fruits. The Caribbean’s annual food import bill is approximately 4 billion dollars.
Otero also met with Ambassador Irwin LaRocque, Secretary General of CARICOM, with whom he ratified an existing alliance between both organizations.
“IICA is CARICOM’s most critical strategic partner, from the technical perspective. We are going to sign a new agreement at the beginning of 2019, and much in the same way as what we did with the OECS (Organization of Eastern Caribbean States), we will work in specific areas to foster agricultural and rural development”, concluded Otero.
At one of the meetings at the 15th Caribbean Week of Agriculture, IICA Representative in Jamaica, Elizabeth Johnson, made a presentation to the Ministers on an initiative to implement a biofortification program for products that are part of the region’s family food basket, including corn, rice, beans, sweet potato and cassava.
The proposal, which is part of a strategy to tackle non-communicable diseases, by increasing and improving linkages between agriculture and nutrition, was favorably received by the Ministers and an inter-institutional group will be established to oversee its implementation.
More information:
Elizabeth Johnson, IICA Representative in Jamaica
Diego Montenegro, Special Affairs Coordinator for the Northern Region