SAGARPA Mexico Training Programme

IICA has continued its collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture in Mexico (SAGARPA) to build the capacity of Caribbean personnel in specialist areas. Since the start of the programme in 2014, twenty-one (21) persons in Jamaica have benefited from the training.  Most recently in June 2015, three persons attended an In-Vitro Clonal Propogation of Tropical Plants in Trinidad and Tobago, one person attended an Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service in Ports, Airports and Borders in Mexico in April, while another attended the training on Efficient Use of Rainwater and Runoff in Agricultural Activities in Panama in August.

During the summer of 2014, the programme provided six training courses in the following disciplines: Plant Pathology techniques, Sheep Production, Protected Agriculture, Soil and Water Conservation, Rural Tourism, and Family Farming. Seventeen persons from Jamaica participated the training programme. The participants represented the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, (MOAF), Tourism Product Development Company (TPDCo), Caribbean Research and Development Institute (CARDI), University of the West Indies (UWI), and IICA.

The trainees expressed satisfaction with the training courses and reported that the knowledge and skills gained would assist their current work activities. As part of the training programme, country teams were required to submit related project concepts for their home countries. The Mexican institutions selected three of the Jamaican project concepts for closer review via visits to the island. The three project concepts were:

• Survey of papaya fields for the presence/ absence of the Papaya meleira virus
• Assisted breeding techniques (Embryo Transfer and Artificial Insemination) for small ruminants
• Development of community-based rural tourism activities in Nine Miles and surrounding communities.