The opening ceremony of the 19th Caribbean Week of Agriculture will be held on 29 September 2025, at the St. Kitts Marriott Beach Resort, Casino & Spa, Frigate Bay, St. Kitts and Nevis.
The week of activities will shine a spotlight on agriculture in the Region, under the theme ‘Sowing Change, Harvesting Resilience: Transforming Our Caribbean Food Systems for 2025 and Beyond’.
The Hon. Dr. Geoffrey Ian Hanley, Deputy Prime Minister of St. Kitts and Nevis, will deliver the keynote address at the opening. Other speakers will include the Hon. Samal Duggins, Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Marine Resources of St. Kitts and Nevis; Dr. Manuel Otero, Director General of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), Dr. Wendell Samuel, CARICOM Assistant Secretary-General, Economic Integration, Innovation and Development; Dr. Renata Clarke, Sub-regional Coordinator for the Caribbean of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations; Mr. Brian Bogart, Representative and Country Director, World Food Programme Caribbean Multi-Country Office; Mr. Ansari Hosein, Executive Director, Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI).
Mr. Miguel Flemming, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Marine Resources, Dr. Femi Ogunseinde, Executive Director, Ministry of Finance Incorporated (MOFI) of Nigeria, and Senator Abubakar Kyari, Minister of Agriculture and Food Security of Nigeria, will also make remarks, while Ms. YuShaner Jeffers, Director of Agriculture (Ag.), Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Marine Resources will deliver the vote of thanks.
The CARICOM Farmer of the Year and CARICOM Young Farmer of the Year Awards will be presented during the ceremony.
At the CWA this year, there will be technical workshops that will focus on connecting capital with opportunity and will include sessions on farmer-led innovations; harnessing sargassum; commercialising agriculture value chains; driving climate resilience; digital solutions to improve agriculture food systems; regenerative agriculture; small-scale fisheries; cultivating leadership and inclusion; and the African Swine Fever Surveillance and response capacity-building.
The week will feature high level ministerial engagements, including a Special Meeting of the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) on Agriculture; Meetings of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) Agriculture Ministers; and Board of Directors Meetings of the Caribbean Agricultural Health and Food Safety Agency (CAHFSA) and the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI).
Other events include an exhibition, an Agriculture Day and Marine Expo, and a honey show by CARICOM and the OECS.
Representatives of the media are invited to provide in-person coverage of the following:
EVENT: Opening Ceremony| 19th Caribbean Week of Agriculture
WHEN: 29 September 2025| 9 am (AST)
WHERE: St. Kitts Marriott Beach Resort, Casino & Spa, Frigate Bay, St. Kitts and Nevis
The livestream will be available on the following social media platforms: Facebook, YouTube, X, LinkedIn
Please join the event at least 15 minutes before the scheduled start time.
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.
The 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:
- the 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
- for the 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.
The CWA is convened under the aegis of the Alliance for Sustainable Development of Agriculture and the Rural Milieu (The Alliance). From the inaugural meeting in 1998, the two main collaborating agencies were 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 logistics necessary for the convening and servicing of meetings of The Alliance as well as the myriad 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.
To date, there have been 18 successful editions of the CWA. The first CWA was held in Trinidad and Tobago in 1999. Last year, St. Vincent and the Grenadines hosted the event.
