Let me first recognise the presence of the Honourable Dr. Geoffery Ian Hanley, Deputy Prime Minister of the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis;
The Honourable Samal Duggins, Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries, Marine Resources and Cooperatives, Small Business and Entrepreneurship, Sports and the Creative Economy and Entertainment and the Arts of St. Kitts and Nevis – I thank you for being such a generous host.
- I also salute other Ministers of Agriculture of CARICOM Member States;
- Dr. Wendell Samuel, Assistant Secretary-General (ag), Economic Integration, Innovation and Development of CARICOM.
- Dr. Femi Ogunseinde, Executive Director, Ministry of Finance Incorporated
- Dr. Renata Clarke, Sub-Regional Coordinator of the FAO;
- Mr. Brian Bogart, Country Director, World Food Programme;
- Mr. Ansari Hosein, Executive Director of CARDI;
- Other Members of the Alliance for Sustainable Development of Agriculture and the Rural Milieu, we have been together since 1998.
- Heads and staff of Regional and International Organizations,
- Mr. Miguel Flemming, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Marine Resources,
- Ms. Yushaner Jeffers, Director of Agriculture (ag), Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Marine Resources
- Representatives of the diplomatic corps,
- Farmer, youth and women organisations,
- Other civil society organizations,
- IICA staff, members of the media, ladies and gentlemen,
- Good morning.
I am happy and honoured to be participating for the third time in a CWA event and especially in this 19th edition. CWA represents more than a gathering. It is a reaffirmation of our shared vision that Caribbean agriculture is at the heart of resilience, prosperity, and food security.
When I was first elected Director-General of IICA back in 2017, it was on the backing of very strong support from the Caribbean region. And when I was officially sworn in January of 2018, I made a solemn pledge that I will be faithful to the region for that show of support, and I hope that, in some small measure, I have lived up to that expectation.
One of my first acts was to request the development of a differentiated strategy for the Caribbean region, recognising that the region, being comprised of largely small island developing states with high vulnerability to external shocks, had its own unique peculiarities and circumstances. Consequently, it could not be business as usual when developing technical cooperation actions to address the agricultural and rural developmental priorities of the region.
This differentiated strategy for the region, therefore, allowed iica to be more responsive in its technical cooperation interventions in the Caribbean region. As such, the Institute’s actions have taken into account the needs of smallholder farmers, the high food import dependency of the region, and the many poor-resourced food chain actors grappling with the myriad challenges including those related to soil degradation, frequent natural disasters, generally low levels of productivity, investment, technology and innovation adoption and access to extra-regional markets for agri-food products.
I think standing here now, I can report that in the last 8 years we have seen enormous strides in advancing the regional agricultural sector. I feel enormous pride that IICA has made contributions to these achievements under my administration.
In addition to the investment of maintaining our 14 offices in the Caribbean region and executing a diverse technical cooperation agenda in the region, as part of our differentiated approach to the Caribbean region, in 2020 I instituted a special fund for the Caribbean member states to respond directly to priority requests of the ministers of agriculture. This fund initially emerged in an attempt to accelerate the rehabilitation of the agriculture sector and guarantee food security during the COVID-19 and immediate post-COVID-19 periods, but later, I continued this fund to provide direct support to the objectives of CARICOM Vision 25 by 2025 +5. To date, we have expended over USD700,000 in this fund covering a wide range of priority national and regional project initiatives.
Ladies and gentlemen, this apparently simple act has yielded success beyond what we could have imagined. And to illustrate, let me indicate some of the legacy products which have emanated from this special fund. These include:
- Support to CARICOM in developing a new biofortified rice variety high in zinc which was released in October 2023;
- Support to the OECS sub-region in the development and execution of the food and agriculture systems transformation (fast) strategy;
- Extensive capacity-building interventions amongst the vast number of project interventions under this fund.
I think the COVID-19 experience was a watershed moment in which IICA acted with speed and tenacity to support the region towards normalization of the agriculture sector and their national economies during this testing period. In response to an emergency ministerial meeting of Caribbean ministers of Agriculture during COVID-19, IICA developed an agricultural extension app which has since been disseminated to countries in the region to overcome these challenges. Similarly, an agricultural trade app was developed by IICA for CARICOM, in a bid to boost intra-regional trade, and I understand at this CWA 2025, after successful piloting by the CARICOM Secretariat, it is being formally launched under the title business to business application.
Given the importance of science, technology and innovation as a central pillar for agriculture development, during my tenure I have continued CARDI’s direct annual subvention of USD 200,000 to support CARDI in executing priority regional projects. I am pleased to announce that by the end of this year, we will be completing the first phase of a regional centre of excellence for agricultural innovation located in Jamaica, but with the purpose of serving the entire region. In the same token, upon direct request of the Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, the Honourable Dr. Ralph E. Gonsalves, we are also currently implementing a soils rehabilitation project in that country, to assist this country in finding solutions to the challenges posed by the vast deposits of volcanic ash in its agricultural soils following the eruption of the la soufriere volcano in 2021. This project is financed under our hemispheric fund for agricultural resilience and sustainability in the Americas (FOHRSA) which I will allude to later on.
As mentioned earlier, the Caribbean is a region which is frequently beset by catastrophic risks such as natural disasters – particularly tropical storms but also seismic/volcanic activity, and extended drought events. We have responded to these challenges by leveraging our relationships with other IICA member countries in the Americas and other regions of the hemisphere, in addition to using our own resources to support the recovery efforts. We developed a broad institutional mechanism, the hemispheric fund for agricultural resilience and sustainability in the Americas (FOHRSA), which was launched in 2024, in an attempt to effectively respond to the persistent challenge of climate finance facing developing countries, and we have already undertaken projects in the region under this fund.
Our south-south intervention efforts have resulted in the donation of significant relief supplies and seeds from friendly governments, particularly Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Chile. And I hope this bridge will be continued and expanded to the greater benefit of the Caribbean region.
As I approach the end of my term as IICA Director General, I have launched a number of new initiatives to bolster those already ongoing in the region and accelerate the delivery of tangible results to the region. Let me just mention:
- Agritalent programme of the Americas: where this year 2025, 10 semester-long internships will be offered to young professionals from the OECS member states.
- Quality seed programme for disaster response in the Caribbean: this initiative aims to strengthen disaster preparedness and post-disaster recovery in the Caribbean by developing a climate-resilient seed system that ensures timely access to high-quality seeds and contributes to long-term food and nutrition security.
- Regional fusarium tr4 initiative: this initiative recognizes the threat posed by exotic diseases such as tr4 which attacks the musa species and poses a major threat to food and nutrition security in the Caribbean. It aims to improve the capacity of countries to safeguard borders from this devastating disease;
- IICA-CATOE small ruminant programme: that recognizes the high import dependency, and the corresponding challenge to reduce the high meat product imports of OECS countries. It therefore aims to build in-house capacity to boost small ruminant production
- Strategic partnerships strengthening initiative: this initiative seeks to increase and share with the CARICOM Member States the tremendous benefits that IICA has experienced from its mechanisms which foster strategic partnerships with development partners in both the public and private sectors.
- IICA recognizes rural leaders of the Americas as part of an initiative created to recognize men and women who leave their mark and make a difference in rural areas of Latin America and the Caribbean. This recognition has highlighted 15 Caribbean rural leaders who have fulfilled an irreplaceable dual role: guarantors of food and nutritional security and, at the same time, guardians of the planet’s biodiversity and rural territories.
IICA continues to provide support for women and youth in agriculture, recognizing them as vulnerable demographics that require specific attention. In this vein we continue our support for CANROP, Helen’s Daughters and other women’s organisations and producer groups in the countries, extending also that support to youths and youth organisations in the sector. We are indeed happy to be part of the process for the selection and award of Caribbean Farmer of the Year awards at every CWA.
I would like to also take this opportunity to inform you that this is my final year as director general of IICA. My dear friends, this is a bittersweet moment for me. On one hand, I feel immense joy as we have built such a strong relationship over the last eight years, and honestly, I truly feel embraced as a member of the Caribbean family every time I come to the region. On the other hand, as my term as IICA Director General is coming to an end, I am also here to bid you farewell and I will surely miss the excellent collaboration and friendships with ministers, officials and stakeholders in the agricultural sector in the Caribbean region.
The Inter-American Board of Agriculture (IABA), IICA’s highest governing body, which is comprised of the 34 ministers of agriculture of our member states, 14 of which are from the Caribbean region, will be meeting in Brazil, from November 3-5th, of this year to elect a new director general for the institute. We have three excellent candidates, each of them highly qualified and representing the heterogenous reality of our hemisphere. Let me express that in my view the best candidate is the one that member states, exercising their sovereign and non- delegable responsibility, decide as the new director general to succeed me, beginning in middle of January 2026. I must state that whatever the outcome, I am confident that IICA’s commitment to the Caribbean region will not waver.
To all the ministers of agriculture, past and present who have graced the doors of IICA and have given me their unwavering support in executing my mandate as Director General of this great institution, I want to extend a hearty thanks to you all. And I must say here that I consider you my personal friends now.
To the Secretary-General of CARICOM, Dr. Carla Barnett and her team, and to Director General Dr. Didacus Jules of the OECS and his team, I thank you for your disposition of working together in transforming the agriculture and rural sector of the region over these last 8 years.
To the regional institutions such as CARDI, The University of the West Indies, 5Cs, CDB, amongst many others, I say thank you for your kind support. I include all international organizations that is impractical to mention all here on this occasion, I express my gratitude for your support. To the farmers organisations, youth and women organisations I say a heartfelt thank you for making our work in the region such a rewarding experience.
Ladies and gentlemen, IICA reaffirms its commitment to member states in promoting the sustainable development of agriculture and rural milieu as a collective endeavour. We look forward to a hugely successful CWA 2025 and remain ready and willing to follow up on the commitments and decisions emanating from this important regional event.
Muchas gracias. Thank you!
