The 20th Caribbean Week of Agriculture (CWA) will be launched on Thursday, 21 May 2026, via a hybrid ceremony anchored in Jamaica, where the week of activities will be held this year.
CWA is the Region’s premier agricultural event that features seminars; statutory meetings of regional agriculture organisations; and other key forums, including a special meeting of the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED); technical showcases and a trade show.
From 27 September – 2 October, farmers and youth, entrepreneurs, innovators, policymakers, partners, and other stakeholders in the sector will gather for the week of agriculture-related events. The theme of this year’s staging is ‘The New FACE of Caribbean Food Systems’. FACE represents Food Security, Agri-Business, Climate-Smart Technologies, and Export Expansion.
Speakers at this launch include the Hon. Floyd Green, Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining of Jamaica; Hon. Zulfikar Mustapha, Minister of Agriculture of Guyana and Chair of the Special Ministerial Task Force on Food Security and Food Production; Dr. Carla Barnett, CARICOM Secretary-General; Dr. Muhammad Ibrahim, Director General of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA); Mr. Rene Orellana Halkyer, Assistant Director-General, Regional Representative, Latin America and the Caribbean, The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO); Dr. Patrick Antoine, Chief Executive Officer and Technical Director, CARICOM Private Sector Organisation (CPSO) and Ambassador David Prendergast, Director, Sectoral Programmes, CARICOM Secretariat.
Members of the media are invited to provide coverage
EVENT: Launch, 20th Caribbean Week of Agriculture
DATE: 21 May 2026
TIME: 1pm Kingston, Jamaica; 2 pm Georgetown, Guyana; 12 pm Belmopan, Belize; 3 pm Paramaribo, Suriname
In person coverage:
VENUE: Summit, Kingston, Jamaica
Virtual coverage:
Please follow the ceremony on the following social media platforms:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/caricom.org
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/caricomorg
X: https://twitter.com/CARICOMorg
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ABOUT THE CARIBBEAN WEEK OF AGRICULTURE
The Caribbean Week of Agriculture (CWA) is the premier event on the regional agricultural calendar. It is a roving event hosted by CARICOM Member States and Associate Members and includes seminars, key meetings, a special meeting of the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED), and an exhibition.
CWA was conceptualised by the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) as a facility to place agriculture and rural life on the front burner of regional integration activities and in doing so enable:
- key decision-makers in the public and private sectors to better acknowledge the importance of agriculture and rural life to the economic, social, and environmental stability of the region; and
- major stakeholders in agriculture and related sectors to have an opportunity to dialogue and forge a common vision for the repositioning of agriculture and the enhancement of rural life.
CWA is convened under the aegis of the Alliance for Sustainable Development of Agriculture and the Rural Milieu (The Alliance). Since the inaugural meeting in 1998, the two main collaborating agencies have been IICA and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat.
In 2002, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI) joined IICA and CARICOM to establish a core group which functions as the Secretariat of The Alliance. Since then, the four agencies have collaborated on the management and coordination for the convening and servicing of meetings of The Alliance as well as the myriad of activities during the CWA. The Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) which was a joint international institution of the African, Caribbean, and Pacific (ACP) Group of States and the European Union (EU) from 1983 – 2020, was a major partner and sponsor of the CWA activities from 2003.
The first CWA was held in Trinidad and Tobago in 1999. St. Kitts and Nevis hosted the 2025 CWA under the theme ‘Sowing Change, Harvesting Resilience: Transforming Our Caribbean Food Systems for 2025 and Beyond’. In 2026, Jamaica will host the CWA. The theme of this milestone 20th edition is ‘The New FACE of Caribbean Food Systems’.
